Letters on the Masonic institution

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LETTERS

ON TBE

MASONIC INSTITUTION.

BT

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

BOSTON:

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN,

No. 94 Covaaass Stbxit.

1847.

f^5
527
. AZ
18*47

PEEFACE.

It is now twenty years since there sprung up in the
United States an earnest and at times a vehement discus-
sion, of the nature and effect of the bond entered into by
those citizens who join the society of Free and Accepted
Masons. The excitement which arose in consequence
of the disclosures then made, had the effect, at least for a
time, if not permanently, to check the further spread of that
association. The legislative power of some of the States'
was invoked, and at last actually interposed, to prevent the
administration of extra-judicial oaths, including of course
all such as were constantly taken in the Masonic Ordec^
This was the furthest point which the opposition ever\
reached. It did not succeed in procuring the dissolution '
of the organization of the Order, or even the repeal of the
charters under which it had a recognized existence in the
social system. From the moment of the adoption of a
penal law, deemed strong enough to meet the most serious
of the evils complained of, the apprehension of further
danger from Masonry began to subside. At this day, the
subject has ceased to be talked of. The attention of men~^
has been gradually diverted to other things, until at last it
may be said, that few persons are aware of the fact, pro-
vided it be not especially forced upon their notice, that
not only Freemasonry continues to exist, but also, that

^

other associations partaking of its secret nature, if not of
its unjustifiable obligations, not merely live, but greatly
flourish in the midst of them.

Fully aware of this state of things, a few private citi-
zens who deeply interested themselves in the investigation
of the subject when first agitated, yet feel as if their duty
was not entirely performed so long as they shall have left
undone any act which in their estimation may have the
effect of keeping up among their countrymen a vigilant
observation of the nature and tendency of secret associa-
tions. Without cherishing the remotest desire, even if
they could be supposed to entertain the expectation, of
reviving an old excitement, they are nevertheless most
anxious to put in a permanently accessible shape, some
clear and strong exposition of tho evil attending similar
ties, a8jhAt..e£iL-was illustrat-ed years ago in an examina-
tion of the Freemason's Oath. Such an exposition they
knew could be found~ ih"the Writings of the Honorable
John duincy Adams. But although the various papers in
which it was first issued to the public enjoyed an extensive
circulation at the period when it was written, and without
doubt contributed much to the establishment of an im-
proved state of popular opinion, they are believed never to
have been collected together in any one form readily open
to the public examination. This great deficiency, it seemed
to the gentlemen who have been already alluded to, a
desirable object to supply. They accordingly undertook
the task of publishing the present volume, not as a matter
of sale, but solely with the intention of gratuitous distri-
bution. And first of all, they deemed it no more than
proper to communicate with Mr. Adams himself, and to
get his opinion upon the subject. That gentleman very
cheerfully consented to aid the effort, not only by supply-
ing some entirely new documents, which have never
before been printed, but also by promising a recapitulation

of his views in the shape of an Introductory Essay. The
execution of this last engagement has, however, been pre-
vented by the late much regretted illness which has befal-
len him. The task of preparing a preface has, by this
unexpected event, been made to fall into other hands, by
which it must be fulfilled in a far less comprehensive and
satisfactory manner than it would have been by him.

The Institution of Masonry was introduced into the
British Colonies of North America more than a hundred
years ago. It went on slowly at first, but from the time
of the Revolution it spread more rapidly, until in the first
quarter of the present century it had succeeded in winding
itself through all the departments of the body politic in the
United States, and in claiming the sanction of many of the
country's most distinguislied men. Up to the year 1S26,
nothing occurred to mar its progress or to interpose the
smallest obstacle to its triumphant success. So great had
then become the confidence of the members in its power,
as to prompt the loud tone of gratulation in which some
of its orators then indulged at their public festivals, and
cunong these none spoke more boldly than Mr. Brainard,
in the passage which will be found * quoted in the present
volume. He announced that Masonry was exercising it«
influence in the sacred desk, in the legislative hali and on
the bench of justice, but so little had the public attention
been directed to the truth he uttered, that the declaration
passed off, and was set down by the uninitiated rather as
a dower of rhetoric with which young speakers will some-
times magnify their topic, than as entitled to any particu-
larly serious notice. Neither would these memorable
words have been rescued from oblivion, if it had not
happened that the very next year after they were uttered
was destined to furnish a most extraordinary illustration
of their significance.

• Page 2S&

VI

In a small town situated in the western part of the Stata
of New York, an event occurred in the autumn of the
year 1826, which roused the suspicions first of the people
living in the immediate neighborhood, and afterwards of
a very wide circle of persons throughout the United States.
A citizen of Batavia suddenly disappeared from his family ^
without giving the slightest warning. Rumors were
immediately circulated that he had run away; but there
were circumstances attending the act which favored the
idea that personal violence had been resorted to, although
the precise authors of it could not be distinctly traced.
The name of the citizen who thus vanished as if the earth
had opened and swallowed him from sight, was William
Morgan. He had been a man of little consideration in
the place, in which he had been but a short time resident
Without wealth, for he was compelled to labor for the
support of a young wife and two infant children, and
without influence of any kind, it seemed as if there could
be nothing in the history or the pursuits of the individual
to make him a shining mark of persecution, on any
account. So unreasonable, if not absurd, did the notion
of the forcible abduction of such a man appear, that it was
at first met with a cold smile of utter incredulity. Among
the floating population of a newly settled country, the
single fact of the departure of persons having few ties to
bind them to any particular spot, would scarcely cause
remark or lead to inquiry. Numbers, when first called to
express an opinion in the case of Morgan, at once jumped
to the conclusioh that he had voluntarily fled to parts
unknown. So natural was the inference that even to this
day, many who have never taken any trouble to look into
the evidence, are impressed with a vague notion that it is
the proper solution of the difllculty. In ordinary circum-
stances the thing might have passed off as a nine days'
wonder, and in a month's time the name of Morgan might

vn

hare been foi^tten in Batavia, had it not been for a single
doe which was left behind him, and which, at first fol-
lowed up from curiosityi soon excited wonder, and from
this led to astonishment at the nature of the discove-
ries that ensued.

The sing^ clue which ultimately unwound the tangled
akein of evidence was this. The sole act of Morgan,
whilst dwelling in Batavia, which formed any exception
to the ordinary habits of men in his walk of life, was an
mdertaking into which he entered, in partnership with
another person, to print and publish a book. This book
promised to contain a true account of certain ceremonies
and secret obligations taken by those who joined the
society of Freemasons. The simple announcement of the
intention to print this work was known to have been re*
oeived by many of the persons in the vicinity, acknowledged
brethren of the Order, with signs of the most lively indig-
nation. And as the thing went on to execution, so many
efforts were made to interrupt and to prevent it, even at
the hazard of much violence, that soon after the disappear-
ance of the prime mover of the plan, doubts began to
spread in the community, whether there was not some
connection, in the way of cause and effect, between the
proposed publication and that event Circumstances rap-
idly confirmed suspicion into belief, and belief into cer-
tainty. At first the attention was concentrated upon the
individuals of the fraternity discovered to have been
concerned in the taking off. It afterwards spread itself
so far as to embrace the action of the Lodges of the region
in which the deed was done. But such was the amount of
resistance experienced to efforts made to ferret out the
perpetrators and bring them to justice, that ultimately the
whole organization of the Order became involved in re-
qionsibility for the misdeeds of its members. The oppo-
siiiim made to investigation only stimulated the passion to

investigate. Unexampled efforts were made to enlist the^
whole power of the social system in the pursuit of the
kidnappers, which were as steadily baffled by the superior
activity of the Masonic power. In time, it became plain,
that the only effectual course would be, to go if possible
to the root of the evil, and to attack Masonry in its very
citadel of secret obligations.

The labor expended in the endeavor to suppress the
publication of Morgan's book, proved to have been lost.
It came out just at the moment when the disappearance of
its author was most calculated to rouse the public curiosity
to its contents. On examination, it was found to contain
what purported to be the forms of Oaths taken by those who
were admitted to the first three degrees of Masonry, — the
Entered Apprentice's, the Fellow Craft's and the Master
Mason's. If they really were what they pretended to be,
then indeed was supplied a full explanation of the motives
that might have led to Morgan's disappearance. But here
was the first difficulty. Doubts were sedulously spread
of their genuineness. Morgan's want of social character
was used with effect to bring the whole volume into dis-
credit. Neither is it perfectly certain that its revelations
would have been ultimately established as true, had not a
considerable number of the fraternity, stimulated by the
consciousness of the error which they had committed,
voluntarily assembled at Leroy, a town in the neigh*
borhood of Batavia, and then and there, besides attesting
the veracity of Morgan's book, renounced all further con-
nection with the society. One or two of these persons
subsequently made far more extended publications, in
which they opened all the mysteries of the Royal Arch,
and of the Knight Templar's libation, besides exposing in
a clear light the whole complicated organization of the
Institution. Upon these disclosures the popular excite-
ment spread over a large part of the northern section of

IX

the Union. It crept into the political divisions of the
time. A party sprang up almost with the celerity of
magic, the end of whose exertions was to be the overthrow
of Masonry. It soon carried before it all the power of
Western New York. It spread into the neighboring
States. It made its appearance in legislative assemblies,
and there demanded full and earnest investigations, not
merely of the circumstances attending the event which
originated the excitement, but also of the nature of the
obligations which Masons had been in the habit of assum-
ing. Great as was the effort to resist this movement, and
manifold the devices to escape the searching operation
proposed, it was found impossible directly to stem the tide
of popular opinion. Masons, who stubbornly adhered to
the Order, were yet compelled under oath to give their
reluctant testimony to the truth of the disclosures that
had been made. The oaths of Masonry and the strange
rites practised simultaneously with the assumption of
them, were then found to be in substance what they had
been affirmed to be. The veil that hid the mystery was
rent in twain, and there stood the idol before the gaze
of the multitude, in all the nakedness of its natural
deformity.

Strange though it may seem, it is nevertheless equally
certain, that the most revolting features of the obligation,
the pledges subversive of all moral distinctions, and the
penalties for violating those pledges, were not those things
which roused the roost general popular disapprobation.
Here, as often before, the shield of private character,
earned by a life and conversation without reproach, was
interposed with effect to screen from censure men who
protested that when they swore to keep secret the crimes
which their brethren might have committed, provided
they were revealed to them under the Masonic sign, they
did nothing which they deemed inconsistent with their
b

dories as ChrisftiaDs and as members of societf. It is the
tendency of mankind to mix with all abstract reasoning,
however pure and perfect, a great deal of the alloy of
human authority, to harden its nature. Multitudes pre-
ferred to believe the Masonic oaths and penalties to be
ceremonies, childish, ridiculous and unmeaning, mther
than to suppose them intrinsically and incurably vicious.
They refused to credit the fact that men whom they
respected as citizens could have made themselves parties
to any promise whatsoever to do acts illegal, unjust
and wicked. Rather than go so far, they preferred to
throw themselves into a state of resolute unbelief of all
that could be said against them. Hence the extraordinary
resistance to all projects of examination, that great waU of
brass which the conservative temper of society erects
around acknowledged and time-hallowed abuses. Hence
the determination to credit the assurances of interested
witnesses, who seemed to have a character for veracity to
support, rather than by pressing investigation, to under-
mine the established edifice constructed by the world's
opinion.

Neither is there at bottonr any want of good sense in
this sluggish mode of viewing all movements of reform.
Agitation always portends more or less of risk to society,
and tends to bring mere authority into contempt. It is
therefore not without reason that those who value the
security which they enjoy under existing institutions, hes-
itate at adopting any rule of eonduet which may materially
diminish it. Such hesitation i» visible under all forms of
government, but it is no where more marked than in the
United States, where the popular nature of the institutions
makes the tendency to change at all times imminent. The
misfortune attending this natural and pardonable conserva-
tive instinct is, that it clings with indiscriminate tenacity
to all that has been long established, the evil as well as the

good, the abuses that have crept in equally with the use-
ful and the true. It was just so in the case of Masonry.
A large number of the most active and respected mem-
bers of society had allowed themselves to become in-
volved in its obligations, atul rather than voluntarily to
confess the «rror they had committed, and to sanction the
overthrow of the Institution by a decided act of surren-
der, they preferred to support it upon the strength of their
present character, and upon the combination of themselves
and the friends whom they could influence to resist the
assaults of a reforming and purifying power. Great as
was the strength of this resistance, it could only partially
succeed in accomplishing the object at which it aimed.
The opposition made to the admission of a palpable
moral truth, had its usual and natural effect to stimulate
the efforts i>f those who were pressing it upon the public
attention. Admitting in the fuUest extent jevery thing
that could be said in behalf of many of the individuals,
who as Masons became subjected to Xhe vehemence of
the denunciations directed against the fraternity, it was
yet a fact not a littfe startling, that even they should
deem themselves so far bound by unlawful 4)bIigation8 as
at no time to be ready to signify the smallest disappro-
bation of their character, not even after the fact was
proved how much of evil they had caused. After the
disclosures of the Morgan history, it was no longer pos-
sible to pretend that the pledges were not actually con-
strued in the sense which the language plainly conveyed.
That after admitting the possibility of such a construction,
the association which for one moment longer should give
it countenance, made itself responsible for all the crime
which might become the fruit of it, cannot be denied.
Tet this reasoning did not appear to have the weight to
which it was fairly entitled, in deterring the respectable
members of xhe society from giving it their aid and

XII

coantenance. DeWitt Clinton still remained Grand Mas-
ter of the Order after he had reason to know the extent
to which it had made itself accessory to the Morgan
murder. Edward Livingston was not ashamed publicly
to declare his acceptance of the same office, althoQgh the
chain of evidence which traced that crime to the Masonic
oath had then been made completely visible to all. When
the authority of such names as these was invoked with
success, to shelter the association from the effect of its
own system, it seemed to become an imperative duty on
the part of those whose attention had been aroused to the
subject, to look beyond the barrier of authority so sed*
ulously erected in order to keep them out, to probe by a
searching analytic process the moral elements upon which
the Institution claimed to rest, and to concentrate the rays
of truth and right reason upon those corrupt principles,
which if not effectively counteracted, seemed to threaten
the very foundations of justice in the social and moral
system of America.

It was the province here marked out which Mr. Adams
voluntarily assumed to fill when he addressed to Colonel
William L. Stone that series of letters upon the Entered
Apprentice's Oath, which will be found to make a part of
the present volume. Although this obligation may be
considered as constituting the lowest story and least com-
manding portion of the edifice of Freemasonry, yet he
singled it out for examination as the fairest test by which
he could try the merits of all that has been built above it.
If that first and simplest step proved untenable, it followed
as a matter of course, that no later or more difficult one
could fare a whit better. Of the result of the investi-
gation thus entered into, it is thought that no difference of
opinion can now be entertained. No answer worthy of a
moment's consideration was ever made. It is confidently
believed that none is possible. As a specimen of rigid

XIU

moral aDalysis, the letters must ever remain, not simply
as evincing the peculiar powers of the author's mind, but
alao as a standing testimony against the radical vice of the
secret Institution against which they were directed.

When the books of Morgan, and Allyn, and Bernard,
the admissions of Cc lonel Stone and of the Rhode Island
legislative investigation, had left little of the mysteries of
Freemasonry unseen by the public eye, the impressions
derived from observation were curious and contradictory.
Upon the first hasty and superficial glance, a feeling might
arise of surprise that the frivolity of its unmeaning cere-
monial, and the ridiculous substitution of its fictions for
the sacred history, should not have long ago discredited
the thing in the minds of good and sensible men every
where. Yet upon a closer and more attentive examina-
tion, this first feeling vanishes, and makes way for aston-
ishment at the ingenious contrivance displayed in the
construction of the whole machine. A more perfect
agent for the devising and execution of conspiracies
against church or state could scarcely have been con-
ceived. At the outer door stands the image of secrecy,
stimulating the passion of curiosity. And the world
which habitually takes the unknown to be sublime, could
scarcely avoid inferring that the untold mysteries which
were supposed to have been transmitted undivulged to
any external ear, from generation to generation, must
have in them some secret of power richly worth the
knowing. Here was the temptation to enter the portal.
But the unlucky wight, like him of the poet's hell, when
once admitted within the door, was doomed at the same
moment to leave behind him all hope or expectation of
retreat. His mouth was immediately sealed by an obli-
gation of secrecy, imposed with all the solemnity that can
be borrowed from the use of the forms of religious wor-
ship* Nothing was left undone to magnify the effect of the

ant

scene upon his imagination. High sounding titles, strange
and startling modes of procedure, terrific pledges and
imprecations, and last, though not least, the graduation of
orders in an ascending scale, which like mirrors placed in
long vistas, had the effect of expanding the apparent range
of vision almost to infinitude, were all combined to rescue
from ridicule and contempt the moment of discovery
of the insignificant secret actually disclosed. Having
thus been tempted by curiosity to advance, and being cut
off by fear from retreat, there came last of all the appear*
ance of a sufficient infusion of religious and moral and
benevolent profession to furnish an ostensible cause for
the construction of a system so ponderous and complicate.
The language of the Old Testament, the history as
well as the traditions of the Jews, and the resources of
imagination, are indiscriminately drawn upon to deck out
a progressive series of initiating ceremonies which would
otherwise claim no attribute to save them from contempt.
Ashamed and afraid to go backwards, the novice suffers
his love of the marvellous, his dread of personal hazard,
and his hope for more of the beautiful and the true than
has yet been doled out to him, to lead him on until he
finds himself crawling under the living arch, or com-
mitting the folly of the fifth libation. He then too
late discovers himself to have been fitting for the
condition either of a dupe or of a conspirator. He has
plunged himself needlessly into an abyss of obligations
which, if they signify little, prove him to have been a
fool ; and if, on the contrary, they signify much, prove
him ready at a moment's warning, to make himself a
villain.

Such is the impression of the Masonic Institution that
must be gathered from all the expositions that have been
lately made. Yet, strange though it may seem, there is no
reason to doubt that the Society has had great success in

XT

enrolling numbers of persons in many countries among
its members, and in keeping them generally faithful to the
obligations which it imposed. This, if no other fact,
would be sufficient to relieve the whole machine from the
burden of ridicule it might otherwise be made to bear.
Perhaps the strongest feature of the association is to be
found in the pledge it imposes of mutual assistance in die*
tress. On this account much merit has been claimed to
it, and many stories have been circulated of the benefits
which individuals have experienced in war, or in perils by
sea and land, or in other disasters, by the ability to resort
to the grand hailing sign. This argument, which has
probably made more Freemasons than any other, would
be good in its defence were it not for two objections. One
of them is, that the pledge to assist is indiscriminate,
making little or no difference between the good or bad
nature of the actions to promote which a co-operation
may be invoked. The other is, that the engagement im-
plies a duty of preference of one member of society to
the disadvantage of another who may be in all respects
his superior. It establishes a standard of merit conflicting
with that established by the Christian or the social system,
either or both of which ought to be of paramount obliga-
tion. And this injurious preference is the more dangerous
because it may be carried on without the knowledge of
the sufferers. The more scrupulously conscientious a
citizen may be, who hesitates at taking an oath the nature
of which he does not know beforehand, the more likely
will he be to be kept down by the artificial advancement
of others who may derive their advantage from a conning
use of their more flexible sense of right. That these are
not altogether imaginary objections, there is no small
amount of actual evidence to prove. There has been a
time, when resort to Masonry was regarded as eminently
fiivocable to early success in life ; and there hare been

XVI

men whose rapidity of personal and political advancement
it would be difficult to explain by any other cause than
this, that they have been generally understood to be bright
Masons. Such a preference as is here supposed, can be
justifiable only upon the supposition that Masonic merit
and social merit rest on the same general foundation ; — a
supposition which no person will be able to entertain for a
moment after he shall have observed the scales which
belong respectively to each.

Another argument which has been effectively resorted
to as an aid to Freemasonry, is drawn from its supposed
antiquity. To give color to this notion, a very ingenious
use has been made of much of the sacred history ; but it
appears to have no solid foundation whatsoever. Whatever
may have been the nature of the associations of Masons who
built the gothic edifices of the middle ages, the investiga*
tions entered into by those who opposed speculative Free-
masonry sufficiently proved that the latter scarcely dates
beyond the early part of the last century. The air of
traditionary mystery like the mrugo on many a pretend-
ed coin, has been artificially added to heighten its value
to the curious. Yet such has been its effect, that this
cause alone has probably contributed very largely to fill
up the ranks of the Society. The rapidity of its growth
during the period of its legitimate existence, is one of the
most surprising circumstances attending its history. Origi-
nating in Great Britain somewhere about the beginning
of the eighteenth century, it soon ramified not only in that
country, but into France and Germany ; it spread itself
into the colonies of North America, and made its way to
the confines of distant Asia. Although the seeds of the
Institution were early planted in Boston and Charleston,
they did not fructify largely until after the period of the
Revolntion. The original form of Masonry was com*
prised in what are now called the first three degrees— the

entered apprentice, fellow craft and master — but during the
first quarter of the present century, so thoroughly had the
basis been laid over the entire surface of the United
States, that the degrees have been multiplied more than
tenfold, and in all directions the materials have been col-
lected for a secret combination of the most formidable
character. It was not until the history of Morgan laid
open the consequences of the abuse of the system, that
the public began to form a conception of the danger*
ous fanaticism which it was cherishing in its bosom.
Even then, the endeavor to apply effective remedies to the
evil was met with the most energetic and concerted resis-
tance, and the result of the struggle was by no means a
decided victory to the opponents of the Institution. Free-
masonry still lives and moves and has a being, even in
New York and Massachusetts. And at the seat of the
Federal government. Freemasonry at this moment claims
and obtains the privilege of laying the corner-stone of the
national institution created upon the endowment of Janies
Smithson, for the purpose of increasing and diffusing
knowledge among men.

An obvious danger attending all associations of men
connected by secret obligations, springs from their suscepti-
bility to abuse in being converted into engines for the over-
throw or the control of established governments. So soon
was the apprehension of this excited in Europe by Free-
masonry, that many of the absolute monarchies took early
measures to guard against its spread within their limits.
Rome, Naples, Portugal, Spain and Russia made participa-
tion in it a capital offence. Other governments more cau-
tiously confined themselves to efforts to control it by a rigid
system of supervision. In Great Britain, the endeavor of
government has been to neutralise its power to harm, by
entering into it and by placing trust worthy members of the
royal family at its head. Yet even with all these precau-
c

XVUl

tions and prohibitions, it is believed that in Prance at the
period of the revolution, and in Italy within the present
century, much of the insurrectionary spirit of the time
was fostered, if not in Masonic Lodges, at least in associa-
tions bearing a close affinity to them in all essential par-
ticulars. With regard to the United States, there has
thus far in their history been very little to justify any
of the most serious objections which may be made
against Masonry in connection with political affairs.
Yet the events which followed the death of Morgan, first
opened the public mind to the idea that already a secret
influence pervaded all parts of the body politic, with
which it was not very safe for an individual to come into
conflict. The boast of Brainard, already alluded to, was
now brought to mind. It was found to bias, if not to con-
trol, the action of officers of justice of every grade, to
affect the policy of legislative bodies, and even to para-
lyze the energy of the executive head. This power, by
gaining a greater appearance of magnitude from the mys-
tery with which it was surrounded, was doubtless much
exaggerated by the popular fancy during the period of the
Morgan excitement ; but after making all proper allow-
ances, it is impossible from a fair survey of the evidence
to doubt that it was something real, and that it might, in
course of time, have established an undisputed control over
the affairs of the Union, bad not its progress been some-
what roughly broken by the consequences of the violent
movement against Morgan, which had its origin in the
precipitate but fanatical energy of one division of the soci-
ety. And even since the agitation of that day, there is
the best reason for believing that throughout the region
most affected by it, an organization was made up after
the fashion of Masonic Lodges, the object of which was
directly to stimulate a concerted insurrection against the
governing power of a neighboring country, Canada, calcula-

XIX

ted to give rise to a furious contest with a foreign nation,
and to mature plans by which such an attempt could be
most effectually aided by citizens of the United States
in spite of all the national declarations of neutrality and in
defiance of all the fulminations of government at home.
But at the time of Morgan's mysterious disappearance,
the investigations then pursued, imperfect as they were,
and more than once completely baffled for the moment,
brought forth the names of sixty-nine different individuals,
many of them of great respectability of private character,
who had been directly concerned in the outrages attend*
ing his taking off. These sixty-nine persons were not
living within a confined circle. They had their homes
scattered along an extent of country of at least one hun*
dred miles. That so many men, at so many separate
points, should have acted in perfect concert in such a
business as they were engaged in, would scarcely be
believed, without compelling the inference of some dis-
tinct understanding existing between them. That they
should have carried into effect the most difficult part of
their undertaking, a scheme of the most daring and crim-
inal nature, in the midst of a large, intelligent and active
population, without thereby incurring the risk of a full
conviction of their guilt and the consequent punishment,
would be equally incredible, but for the light furnished by
the phraseology of the Masonic oath. The several forms
of this oath, as shown to have been habitually administered
in the first three degrees, will be found in the Appendix to
the present volume. These, together with the ceremony
attending the Royal Arch and the Knight Templar's obli-
gation, have been deemed all of Masonry that is necessary
to illustrate the letters of Mr. Adams. They are believed
sufficient to account for the successful manner in which
Morgan was spirited away. It is not deemed expedient to
dwell here upon their nature, when it will be found fully

XX

analyzed in the body of the present volume. It is enough
to point out the fact that obedience to the Order is the par-
amount law of association ; that it makes every social, civil
and moral duty a matter of secondary consideration ; that
it draws few distinctions between the character of the acts
that may be required to be done, and that it demands
fidelity to guilt just the same as if it were the purest inno-
cence. Every man who takes a Masonic oath, forbids
himself from divulging any criminal act, unless it might
be murder or treason, that may be communicated to him
under the seal of the fraternal bond, even though such
concealment were to prove a burden upon his conscience
and a violation of his bounden duty to society and to his
God. The best man in the world, put in this situation,
may be compelled to take his election between peijury on
the one side and sympathy with crime on the other. The
worst man in the world put in this situation has it in his
power to claim that the best shall degrade his moral sense
down to the level of his own, by hearing from him, with-
out resentment, revelations to which even listening may
be a participation of dishonor.

The facts attending the abduction of Morgan, not elicit-
ed without the most extraordinary difficulty by subsequent
investigation, have been so often published far and wide
as to make it superfluous here to repeat them. It may be
enough to state, that from the day when the partnership
between Morgan and David C. Miller, a printer of Batavia,
made for the purpose of publishing the " Illustrations of
Masonry," was announced, no form of annoyance which
could be expected to deter them from prosecuting their
design, was left unattempted. The precise nature of
these forms may be better understood, if we class them
under general heads, until they took the ultimate shape
of aggravated crime.

1. Anonymous denunciation of the man Morgan, as an

impostor, in newspapers published at Canandaigua, Bata"*
▼ia and Black Rock, places at some distance from each
other, but all within the limits of the region in which the
subsequent acts of violence were committed.

2. Abuse of the forms of law, by the hunting up of
small debts or civil offences with which to carry on vexa-
tious suits or prosecutions against the two persons hereto-
fore named.

3. The introduction of a spy into their counsels, and of
a traitor to their confidence, employed for the purpose of
betraying the manascripts of the proposed work to the
Masonic Lodges, and thus of frustrating the entire
scheme.

4. Attempts to surprise the printing office by a concert-
ed night attack of men gathered from various points,
assembling at a specific rendezvous, the abode of a high
member of the Order, and proceeding in order to the exe-
cution of the object, which was the forcible seizure of the
manuscripts and the destruction of the press used to
print them.

6. Efforts to get possession of the persons of the two
offenders, by a resort to the processes of law, through the
connivance and co-operation of officers of justice, them-
selves Masons. These efforts failed in the case of Miller,
but they succeeded against Morgan, and were the means
by which all the subsequent movements were carried into
execution.

6. The employment of an agent secretly to prepare
materials for the combustion of the building which con-
tained the printing materials known to be employed in the
publication of the book, and to set them on fire.

Such were the proceedings which were resorted to at
the very outset of this conspiracy, and upon looking at
them, it will be seen at a glance that the prosecution of
them involved the commission of a variety of moral and

XXll

social offences, the commission of which may be fairly
inclfided within the literal injutection of the Masonic oath.
Had the matter stopped here, it would have famished
abundance of evidence to establish the dangerous charac-
ter of a secret Institution, when its interests are deemed to
conflict with those of individual citizens or of society at
large. But what has thus far been compressed in the six
preceding heads, appears as nothing when compared with
the startling developments of the remainder of the story.

On Sunday, of all the days in the week, the tenth of
September, 1826, the coroner of the county of Ontario,
himself Master of the Lodge at Canandaigua, applied to a
Masonic justice of the peace of that town for a warrant to
apprehend William Morgan, living fifty miles off at Batavia«
The offence upon which the application was based was
larceny, and the alleged larceny consisted in the neglect
of Morgan to return a shirt and cravat that had been
borrowed by him in the previous month of May. Armed
with this implement of justice, which assumes in this con-
nection the semblance of a dagger rather than of its ordi-
nary attribute a sword, the coroner immediately proceeded
in a carriage obtained at the public cost, to pick up at
different stations along the road of fifty miles, ten Masonic
brethren, including a constable, anxious and willing to
share in avenging the insulted majesty of the law. At the
tavern of James Ganson, six miles from Batavia, the same
place which had been the head quarters of the night expe-
dition against Miller's printing office, the party stopped for
the night. Had that expedition proved successful, it is
very probable that this one would have been abandoned.
As it was, the failure acted as a stimulus to its further
prosecution. Early next morning, five of the Masonic
beagles, headed by the Masonic constable, having previ-
ously procured a necessary endorsement of their writ to
give it effect in the county of Genessee, from a Masonic

ZXIU

justice of the peace, proceeded from Ganson's house to
Batavia, where they succcfbded in seizing and securing the
man guilty of the alleged enormity touching the borrowed
shirt and cravat. A coach was again employed, the Ma-
sonic party lost no time in securing their prey, and at
about sunset of the same day with the arrest, that is,
Monday the eleventh day of September, they got back to
Canandaigua. The prisoner was immediately taken before
the justice who had issued the warrant, the futility of the
complaint was established, and Morgan was forthwith dis-
charged. The case affords a striking illustration of the
abuse of the remedial process of the law to the more
secure commission of an offence against law. Morgan was
free, it is true, but he was at a distance of fifty miles from
home, alone and without friends, brought through the
country with the stigma resulting from the suspicion of a
criminal offence attached to him, and all without expense
to the parties engaged in the undertaking, as well as
without the smallest hazard of a rescue.

It turned out that the person of whom the shirt and
cravat had been originally borrowed, had never sought to
instigate a prosecution for the offence. The idea origina-
ted in the mind of the Masonic coroner himself. He had
executed the plan of using the law to punish an offence of
Masonry, to the extent to which it had now been carried.
Morgan had been brought within the coil of the serpent,
but he was not yet entirely at its mercy. Another abuse
of legal forms yet remained to complete the operation. No
sooner was the victim landed upon the pavement, exon-
erated from the charge of being a thief, than he found the
same Masonic Grand Master and coroner tapping him on
the shoulder, armed with a writ for a debt of two dollars
to a tavern keeper of Canandaigua. Resistance was use-
less. Morgan had neither money nor credit, and for the
want of them he was taken to the county jail. The com-

XXIV

mon property and the remedial process of the State was
thus once more employed to subserve the vindictive pur-
poses of a secret society.

Twenty-four hours were suffered to pass, whilst the
necessary arrangements were maturing to complete the
remainder of the terrible drama. On the evening of the
succeeding day, being the twelfth of September, the same
Grand Master coroner once more made bis appearance at
the prison. After some little negotiation, Morgan is once
more released by the payment of the debt for which he
had been taken. But he is not free. No sooner is he
treading the soil of freedom, and perchance dreaming of
escape from all these annoyances, than upon a given
signal, a yellow carriage and gray horses are seen by the
bright moonlight rolling with extraordinary rapidity to-
wards the jail. A few minutes pass, Morgan has been
seized and gagged and bound and thrown into the car-
riage, which is now seen well filled with men, rolling
as rapidly as before but in a contrary direction. Morgan
is now completely in the power of his enemies. The veil
of law is now removed. All that remains to be done
is to use the arm of the flesh. Morgan is taking his last
look of the town of Canandaigua.

It is a fact that this carriage moved along night and
day, over a hundred miles of well settled country, with
fresh horses to draw it supplied at six different places, and
with corresponding changes of men to carry on the enter-
prise, and not the smallest let or impediment was experi-
enced. With but a single exception, every individual
concerned in it was a Freemason, bound by the secret tie ;
and the exception was immediately initiated by a unani-
mous vote of the Lodge at Lewiston. It afterwards
appeared in evidence that the Lodge at Buffalo had been
called to deliberate upon it, and moreover that the Lodges
at Le Roy, Bethany, Clovington and Lockport, as well as

xxr

the Chapter at Rochester, had all of them consulted upon
it. There is no other way to account for the preparation
made along the line of the road travelled by the party.
Nowhere was there delay, or hesitation, or explanation, or
discussion. Every thing went on like clock-work, up to
the hour of the evening of the fourteenth of September,
when the prisoner was taken from the carriage at Fort
Niagara, an unoccupied military post near the mouth of
the river of that name, and lodged in the place originally
designed for a powder magazine, when the position had
been occupied by the troops of the United States. The
jurisdiction was now changed from that of the State to
that of the federal government, but the power that held
the man was one and the same. It was Masonry that
opened the gates of the Fort, by controlling the will of
the brother who for the time had it intrusted to his charge.
On this same evening, there was appointed to take place
at the neighboring town of Lewiston, an installation of a
Chapter, misnamed Benevolent, at which the arch conspira-
tor was to be made Grand High Priest, and an opportu-
nity was given to all associates from distant points to
come together and to consult upon what it was best to
do next. Here it is, that in spite of the untiring labors of
an investigating committee organized for the purpose, and
in spite of the entire application of the force of the courts
of the country to the eliciting of the truth, the details of
the affair which thus far have been clearly exposed, begin
to grow dim and shadowy. There is reason to believe
that Morgan was carried across the river in a boat at night,
and placed at the disposal of a Canadian lodge at Newark.
The scruples of one or two brethren who hesitated at the
idea of murder, brought on a refusal to assume the trust.
Consultations on this side of the river followed, and mes-
sengers were despatched to Rochester for advice. The
final determination was, that Morgan must die, to pay the
d

XXVI

penalty of his violated oath. After this, every thing at-
tending the catastrophe becomes roore and more uncertain.
It is affirmed that eight Masons met and threw into a hat
as many lots, three of which only were marked. Each
man then drew a lot, and where it was not a marked
lot, he went immediately home. There is reason to be-
lieve that the three who remained, were the persons who,
on the night of the 19th or 20th of September, took their
victim from the fort, where he had been kept for sacrifice,
carried him in a boat to the middle of the stream, and
having fastened upon him a heavy weight, precipitated
him into eternity.

Such is a condensed statement of this eventful history
— a history which in many of its details will vie in inte-
rest with any narrative of romance. That such a tragedy
could be executed in the United States, a country fortified
as the people fondly imagine by all known securities to
life and liberty; that it could be carried on through a
period of ten days, in a populous Christian community,
without thought of rescue ; that it could enlist as actors
so large a number of citizens of good repute in so many
different quarters as were members of the various lodges
privy to the transaction ; and finally, that it could secure
the co-operation of the chosen ministers of justice, and
even of some set apart to the service of the Deity, one of
whom could be found bold enough to invoke the blessing
of God upon the contemplated violation of his most
solemn law ; that it could involve all these possibilities^
was a thing well calculated to rouse the human mind to a
high pitch of wonder, until the problem found its natural
solution in the disclosure of the Masonic oath. Construed
as this obligation was construed by the members of the
order in Western New York, all cause of surprise at the
consequences instantly disappears.

Yet strange as is this narrative, fearful as is the dis-

XX7U

closure of the fanaticisin of secret association which could
impel men — holding a respectable rank in society, walking
by the light of modern civilization, acknowledging the
influence of Christianity over their daily life — to the com-
mission of outrages so flagrant as were the abduction and
murder of William Morgan, it would not of itself have
sufllced to justify attaching even a suspicion to the entire
institution of Freemasonry in the United States, or even
to any considerable branch of it existing without the
limits of the region where the events happened. Whatever
might have been the private sentiments entertained of the
danger attending the assumption of secret obligations, the
exact nature of these was at the outset too little under-
stood to sanction the inference that they allowed criminal
enterprises. Extensive as the conspiracy against Morgan
and Miller appeared to be, yet similar things have been
done under the influence of passion and in open and ac-
knowledged violation of moral and religious duty, in all
stages of the world's progress. It was hence no unreason-
able thing to conclude that it might have happened once
more. Censure was to be directed, if any where, against
those over-zealous members of the order who could be be-
lieved to have overstepped the bounds of reason and of
justice, acknowledged as well by the law of the fraternity
as by the higher one of God and of civil society. It was
reserved for events coming somewhat later, to develope
the fact, that in the instance of Morgan, Freemasons, so
far from thinking themselves to be violating, were literally
following the injunction which they felt to be laid upon
them in their oaths. The law of Masonry was to them
more than that of civil government or of the Deity, even
when it was known directly to conflict with them. It
was the truth of this proposition, slowly and gradually
wrested from the lips of adhering members, that turned
the current of popular indignation from the guilty indi-

XXVIll

victuals towards the Institution itself. It was the proof
furnished of this truth, which created the moral power of
the political party that soon sprung up in New York and
Pennsylvania, and that under the banner of opposition to
all secret societies rallied its tens of thousands in a fierce
and vindictive, and at times, even a fanatical persecution
of every thing that bore even the semblance of dreaded
Freemasonry.

It would be tedious to recapitulate all the particulars of
the evidence which ultimately fastened upon the public
mind a conviction of the reality of the proposition above
named. It may be sufficient to state the manner in which
the powerful efforts made to discover the guilty parties and
to bring them to justice, were perpetually baffled. The
first and most natural impulse operating upon those who
united in an endeavor to maintain the law, was to look to
the Chief Executive Magistrate of New York for energetic
support. The person who held that office at the moment,
was no less distinguished man than the celebrated De Witt
Clinton. But he was at the same time a Freemason, and
what is more, he was High Priest of the General Grand
Chapter of the United States, in other words, the highest
officer of the Order. The fact was known throughout the
region of Western New York, and was unquestionably
relied upon as a protection from danger by those who were
concerned in the deeds of violence. Indeed it afterwards
came out, that what purported to be a letter from him was
freely used for tlie purpose of instigating the members of
the Order to prosecute their schemes. There are many
living who yet suspect that the letter was actually genu-
ine; but that suspicion is believed to be unjust to the
memory of the late Governor Clinton, who did what be
could, as soon as he became apprized of the character of
the offence, to bring the guilty to punishment. The fact
however furnishes aa instructive illustration of the great

ZZIX

danger attending the existence of secret ties, which may
even be suspected to conflict in the mind of a high officer
of state with the performance of his public duties. The
moral influence of his situation was thus wholly lost upon
men who believed, that whatever he might say in public
to the contrary, his sympathies were all with them ; who
supposed that his private obligations to conceal and never
to reveal the secrets of his brother Masons, as well as to
aid and assist in extricating them from any difficulty in
which they might become involved, might be depended
upon, at least so far as to shelter them from the legal con-
sequences of their own misdeeds, within the sphere of
the Ebcecutive influence. Was this an inference wholly
tinwarrauted from the language of the Masonic oath ? Let
any impartial individual examine its nature and answer
affirmatively if he can. Doubtless De Witt Clinton was
wholly innocent of guilt, but his situation was not the less
clearly one of conflict between his Masonic and his social
and religious duty. Although he may have escaped con-
tamination, another and weaker individual might have
made himself accessory to the crime. At all events, it must
be conceded that the situation in which he was thrown,
was one not unnaturally the consequence of his assumption
of conflicting obligations, and one in which no high civil
officer under any government should ever be suffered to
stand.

The second manifestation of the force of the Masonic
obligation was made visible in the courts of justice, which
are established to try persons charged with the commission
of offences against human life or liberty. The sheriffs,
whose duty it was under the laws of New York to select
and summon the grand juries, were, in all the counties in
which the deeds of violence against Morgan had been
committed, Freemasons. Several of them had themselves
been parties to the crime. They did not hesitate to make

XXX

use of their power as officers of justice to screen the crim-
inals from conviction. The jurors whom they summoned
were most of them Masons, some of them participators in
the offences into which it became their civil duty to in-
quire. Theconsequencemay readily be imagined. Money,
time and talent were ex()ended in profusion, for the purpose
of bringing the perpetrators of the crime complained of to
condign punishment ; but almost in vain. Some of the
suspected persons were found and put upon their trial; but
the secret obligation prevailed in the jury box, and uni-
formly rescued them in the moment of their utmost need.
Others vanished from the scene and eluded pursuit even to
the farthest limits of the United States. One man, and
probably the most guilty, was tracked to the bosom of a
Lodge in the city of New York, by the members of which
be was secreted, put on board of a vessel below the har-
bor, and despatched to a foreign land. Five years were
consumed in unavailing efforts to obtain a legal conviction
of the various offenders. Nothing that deserves the name
of a true verdict followed. Such a history of deeply
studied, skilfully combined and successfully executed
movements to set at naught the lawfully constituted tri-
bunals of justice, has at no other time been made evident
in America. Important witnesses were carried off at the
moment when their evidence was indispensable, and
placed beyond the jurisdiction of the State ; or if present
and interrogated, they stood doggedly mute ; or else they
placed themselves entirely under the guidance of legal
advisers employed to protect them from criminating them-
selves. It was made plain to the most ordinary capacity
that the Order was assuming the responsibility of the
crime of some of its members. It was exerting itself to
throw over the guilty, the protecting garb of the innocent.
The obligation of Freemasonry was then the law para-
mount, and the social system sunk into nothing by the

ZXXl

8ide of it. Even distant Lodges responded favorably to
the call made upon them to aid in the defence of the
endangered brethren, by actually voting and forwarding
sums of money for their relief. And the brief and insig-
nificant period of imprisonment which two or three of
them paid as a penalty for comparatively light offences,
was spent by them in receiving the sympathy of a martyr's
fate. The end of all was, that for the first time Masonry
enjoyed its complete triumph. The men who actually
participated in the murder have gradually dropped off,
until it may be said that not a single individual remains
within the United States. But they lived and died secure
from every danger of legal punishment. The oath of Ma-
sonry came in conflict with the duty to society and to
God, and succeeded in setting it aside.

The ends of justice were defeated ; but the labors of
those indefatigable persons who had striven day and night
to promote them, were not altogether thrown away. The
materials were collected to show to the world the chain of
connection woven by the Masonic obligations between the
subordinate Lodges in Western New York and the higher
authorities of the East, Thepopularattention was turned to
every Masonic movement — not solely in the State in which
had been the cause of offence, but in all of the neighbor-
ing States. Extraordinary powers to pursue the investi-
gations to its source were demanded of various legislative
bodies, and the treatment of these applications elicited the
fact that Freemasonry exercised a power almost as great
in the deliberative assemblies as in the executive council
chamber, or in the jury box of the courts. The opposition
to Masonry became gradually more and more intensely
political, and in the process took up an aspect of extreme
and illiberal vindictiveness towards all who ventured to
stay its progress. The other parties were compelled to
b«id to the force of the blast that was sweeping over them.

XZXll

The revelations made by Morgan, in the book which cost
him his life, though at first called an imposture, proved on
examination to be strictly true. But they embraced only
the first three degrees of Masonry. Other persons, dis-
gusted and indignant at the proceedings of their adhering
brethren after the fate of Morgan was known to them,
vohintarily came forward and supplied all the remaining
forms used in America, and many of those which had been
adopted in Europe. A considerable number openly and
voluntarily seceded from the Order. A meeting of such
persons, held at Le Roy, ended, as has been already stated,
in a formal renunciation by them of all their obligations.
Here and there in other States the example was followed
by a few. There were more who silently seceded, having
made up their minds never again to visit a Lodge. Yet
in spite of all this, in spite of the earnest exhortation ad-
dressed to his brethren by Colonel W. L. Stone, in a book
written by him to prevail upon them to dissolve the
Lodges and Chapters and to abandon Masonry altogether,
it must be admitted that the great majority of the Society
remained equally unmoved by denunciation, flattery or
prayer. Some had the assurance publicly to deny the
truth of all the allegations made against Masonry, and
further to affirm that they had never taken obligations as
Masons not compatible with their duties as citizens.
Others, — and the most important of these was Eidward
Livingston, then uniting with the possession of one of the
chief posts of responsibility in the general government,
that of the highest dignity in the Masonic hierarchy,
made vacant by the death of Clinton, — deemed it the
part of wisdom to remain sullenly dumb, abstaining
from all controversy, and suffering the excitement against
Masons to blow over and spend itself in vain. In this
spirit Mr. Livingston proceeded to deliver what he called
an Address to the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter

ItXXIli

of the United States, upon the occasion of his instal-
lation as General Grand High Priest. He recommended
that all attacks made upon the Order to which they be-
longed should be met with dignified silence ; as if digni-
fied silence were not equally a resource for the most atro-
cious criminal and for the most unspotted citizen. The
charge as against Mr. Livingston was surely worthy of
some little consideration when connected with the evidence
already laid before the public to sustain it. It was neither
more nor less than this, that he, being Secretary of State
of the United States, one of the confidential advisers of
the President, and moreover the reputed author of a strong
proclamation issued by the chief magistrate against those
in danger of falling into treasonable practices by their con-
nection with South Carolina nullification, was yet himself
nnder secret obligations which required him to conceal the
evidence of all the offences denounced in that state paper,
provided only that it should be communicated to him
under the seal of Masonic <:onfidez)oe. ^ot rto answer
such a charge as this, implied xather a doubt of the abilitjr
to do so satisfactorily, than a perfect reliance upon the
consciousness of innocence. If Masonry was free from all
the objections raised by its opponents, what more effective
step to establish its innocence than a simple statement of
the truth ? If it was a valuable institution, worthy of
preservation, surely the effort to sustain it against injurious
calumnies was worth making. Could it be supposed that
the unanimous testimony to the alleged character of the
oaths, brought by hundreds of respectable persons who
had taken them but who now renounced them, was to be
discredited by the merely negative action of adhering
Masons, however individually respectable, or however
exalted in position? Considering the precise nature of
the difficulties by which they were surrounded, it is clear
that no defence could have been assumed by them, in its

XXXIV

character more nugatory. It manifested only the con*
scionsness of wrong, combined with a dogged resolution
never to admit nor to retract it.

The address of Mr. Livingston, such as it was, proved
the inciting cause of the publication of a series of letters
directed by Mr. Adams to him, which will be found to
make a part of the present volume. In these papers the
argument against the Masonic obligation, as the root of
all the crimes committed in the case of Morgan, was
pushed with a force which carried conviction to the minds
of many persons at the time, and which seems even at this
day scarcely to admit of reply. Mr. Livingston himself
made no attempt at rejoinder. This was the part of dis-
cretion, for had he done so, there is little reason to doubt
that Mr. Adams would have fulfilled his promise when he
said to him, " Had you ventured to assume the defence of
the Masonic oaths, obligations and penalties — bad you
presumed to commit your name to the assertion that they
can by any possibility be reconciled to the laws of morali-
ty, of Christianity, or of the land, I should have deemed
it my duty to reply, and to have completed the demon-
stration before God and man that they cannot^'

The opportunity for a complete and overwhelming vic-
tory was thus denied to Mr. Adams by the tacit secession
from the field of Mr. Livingston. Yet the effect of his
letters was by no means trifling in many States. The
moral power of the opponents of Masonry visibly increased,
and with it the earnestness of their political hostility to
those who practised its rites. It showed itself in the gen-
eral election of State officers, both in New York and
Pennsylvania, and in the nomination of Mr. William Wirt
as a candidate at the ensuing election for the presidency of
the United States, in opposition to General Jackson, the
incumbent, who was found to be a Freemason. Neither
was Mr. Adams himself suffered to remain disconnected

JXXV

with the moyement of political ojHnions upon the subject.
A large convention of citizens of Massachusetts unani-
mously called upon him to suffer his name to be used in
the canvass for the office of Governor, which took place in
that State in the year 1833. Reluctant as he was to enter
into the arena, and to sacrifice his preference for the posi-
tion in the House of Representatives of the United States,
which he then occupied, the nature of the appeal made to
him overcame all his scruples. The election took place.
It terminated in the failure to make choice of any person
by the requisite constitutional majority. The power of the
party which bad for a long time held the control of the
government of Massachusetts, and with which Mr. Adams
bad up to this period co-operated, was broken under the
effort to sustain Masonry against him. Had he determined
to persevere, it is quite uncertain what might have been the
consequences to the position of the Commonwealth. But
it was not his wish to press the matter beyond the point
which a sense of duty dictated. No sooner was it ascer-
tained by the return of the votes that a continuance of the
contest in the Legislature of the State was to be the result
of his adherence to his position, than he determined to
withdraw his name from the canvass. At the same time
that he took this step, he caused to be published an ad-
dress to the people of the Commonwealth, explaining his
views of the connection between Masonry and the politics
of the country, and justifying himself from the charges
with which he had been most vehemently. assailed. With
this paper, the last in the present volume, and the close of
which is in a strain of eloquence which alone should se-
cure its preservation, Mr. Adams appears to have termina-
ted his public labors in opposition to secret obligations and
to Freemasonry. But their effects were soon afterwards
made visible, by the adoption of 4aws prohibiting the ad-
ministration of extrajudicial oaths, by the voluntary dis-

zxxvt

solution of many of the subordinate lodges, and by the
tacit secession of a large number of individual members.
Indeed, such was the silence preserved for a long time res-
pecting the Institution, that its existence in Massachusetts
might almost have been questioned.* The purposes for
which the organized opposition had been made, seemed so
completely answered, that the motives for maintaining it
were no longer strongly felt. The current of public affairs
soon afterwards took a new turn. Anti-masonry gradually
disappeared as an agent to eflect clianges in the political
aspect of the States, and the individuals who had associa-
ted themselves in the movement, again joined the ordinary
party organizations with which they most nearly sympa-
thised.

Thus it happened that Freemasonry, by cowering un-
der the storm, saved itself from the utter prostration which
would have followed perseverance in the policy of resist-
ance. Years have passed away, and it again gives symp-
toms of revivification. A new and kindred Institution has
suddenly manifested an extraordii>ary degree of develope-
meut under the guise of benevolence. What the precise
nature of the obligations may be, which bind great num-
bers of citizens, mostly young, active men, into this con-
nection, has not yet been fully brought to light. The
objects are stated to be charity and the rendering of mu-
tual aid. If these are all the purposes of the association,
it cannot be otherwise than meritorious. Yet it can
scarcely be maintained that any unlimited pledge of se-
crecy is essential to the successful execution of them.
In a republican form of government, the only real
and proper fraternity is the system of civil society. To
that, every member is bound to bow. The obligations
which it imposes need no veil of secrecy to cover them.
Illustrated by the law of love enjoined by the superior
authority of the divine command, it marks out with dis-

ZZXVll

tinctness to each individual the paramount duty of charity,
of benevolence and of mutual aid and support. There
can be, therefore, no good excuse for resorting to smaller
and narrower spheres for the invidious exercise of such
virtues among those who ought to stand upon a perfectly
even footing, when the broad and general one better an-
swers to every useful and honorable exertion. The dis«
advantages attending the formation of all associations con-
nected by secret obligations, no matter how harmless may
be their appearance, are, first, that if they have any effect
at all, it is injurious to those who do not choose to join
them; secondly, that they substitute a private pledge of a
doubtful nature to a few who have no moral right to the
preference, for a clear and well defined and entirely pro-
per one given to the many. In all similar cases, the ten-
dency to introduce objects of exertion in the smaller circle
which conflict with those of society at large, and which
may sometimes even threaten its safety, is obvious. It is
the temptation presented to conspiracy which has made
secret associations the objects of denunciation by the
monarchs of Europe. The same thing should at all times
render them marks for jealousy and distrust in republican
States. They threaten the harmony of the community
wherever they are. The pledge of political preference
which was rapidly becoming engrafted upon the Masonic
Institution in the United States at the time of the Morgan
excitement, and which had already produced visible re-
sults in many of the smaller towns of New York and New
England, by unaccountably exalting some individuals to
the depression of neighbors equally worthy, furnishes a
good illustration of the mode in which social discord of
the bitterest description may be made in the end to spring
up. In view of the possibility of this hazard, it would
seem as if few could be found, when once made sensible of
the difliculty, willing deliberately to give occasion to it.

XZZVUl

It is confidently believed that in the materials of the
present volume will be found a solemn warning, convey-
ed by a voice in the feebleness of age still powerful
over the sympathy of American citizens, against the for-
mation of secret obligations. As time rolls on in its swift
career, and as the generation which nursed the infant
Republic into strength disappears from the scene, the duty
becomes stronger on those who succeed, to heed the coun-
sels which its wisest and most experienced men leave
behind them. The arguments of Mr. Adams, although
directed against the particular Order of Freemasonry, will
yet be found susceptible of broader application, and extend-
ing themselves over all societies of which the radical error
is, that they shun the light of day. The pride of freemen, —
living under a system of equal laws, with guarantees of the
rights of each individual, — should be to sustain the junction
of innocence with liberty, the union of an open, honest
heart with an efficient and liberal hand. Such a state
cannot co-exist with secret obligations. The person who
lies under an engagement which he must not reveal,
whatever may betide, can indeed be innocent and ener-
getic, but he will not be perfectly frank nor just to all
men alike. Occasions may arise in which his fidelity
to his private pledges will come into conflict with bis
duty to society. Who is then to decide for him what be
must do ? On either side is moral difficulty and mental
distress. If he betray his associates, he spots his heart
with violated faith. If he desert his country, he fails in a
duty of even higher obligation. The alternative is too
painful to a conscientious spirit ever knowingly to be
hazarded with propriety. That such an alternative is by
no means impossible, who can doubt after the cases of Eli
Bruce, of De Witt Clinton, and of Eklward Livingston, in
the Masonic history of the murder of Morgan ? Much as he
might regret it, what Freemason was there in 1826| who

XXXIX

did not perceive at a glance that his pledge to his associates
was to conceal the crime and to shelter the criminal ;
whilst his doty to the State and to Heaven, to dis-
close the guilt and to denounce the author, was written
with a sunbeam on his heart? And how many were
there, who, instead of judging rightly of the relative
importance of the obligations, actually made themselves
accessaries after the fact, by supplying the means of
escape from justice to their unworthy brethren? The
damning evidence of this truth must remain in the minds
of men as long as Masonry shall endure. It may indeed
be that other associations will spring up which may be
free from all the grossly objectionable engagements of that
institution. But who shall be secure against the intrusion
of evil when the portal stands invitingly open to its admis-
sion ? Who shall be able to protect himself against the
designs of those of his associates to whom he has given a
secret control over his will ? These are questions which
every citizen must answer for himself. It is with the
design that he may have at hand the means of acting
understandingly, that the present volume is put forth.
Young persons, who are especially liable to be carried
away by the fascination that always attends mystery, are
hereby furnished with an opportunity to weigh the argu-
ments of a powerful remonstrant against any secret steps.
Hay they read, weigh, and deeply ponder the words of
wisdom, and may the effect of them be to preserve them
in the paths of Liberty, of Friendship, and of Faith,*

* Fidem, Libertatem, Amicitiam — the motto abbreviated from that select-
ed by hU father, who found it in Tacitus, in the charj^e of the Emperor
Galba to Piso, on adopting hira. The passage, as it stands in the original,
applicable to the temptations by which great place is always surrounded, is
as follows: "Fidem, libertatem, amicitiam, prsdpua humani animi bona.
f» quidem eadem constantia retinebi* : ted alii per obeequium imminuent."

early marked out by their adviser as the guides of his own
career, unincumbered by obligations which they fear to
disclose, unembarrassed by promises which they know
not how conscientiously to perform !

CONTENTS.

*<^i^o^<v^^i»

To a Reviewer of Sheppord's Defence of the Masonic Institution, 9
To Edward IngeraoU, Esq., Philadelphia, ... 14

To the same, ....... 18

To the same, ....... 24

To the same, ....... 90

To William H. Seward, Esq., Auburn, N. Y., . . .36

To Richard Rush, Esq., York, PemL, .... 37

To His Excellency Levi Lincoln, Governor of Massachusetts, . 41
To William L. Stone, Esq., New York, ... 47

To the same, ....... 48

To the same, ....... 49

To the same, ....... 56

To the same, ....... 65

To the same, ....... 75

To the same, ....... 85

To the same, . . . . .94

To His Excellency Levi Lincoln, Governor of Massachusetts, . 96
To Alexander H. Everett, Esq., Boston, ... 98

To Richard Rush, Esq., York, Penn., . . . .101

To Benjamin Cowell, fSsq., Providence, R. L, . . .107

To James Morehead, Esq., Mercer, Penn., 112

To Edward Livingston, Esq., . .115

To the same, ....... 129

To the same, ....... 142

To the same, ....... 155

To the same, ....... 168

To the same, ....... 184

To Messrs. Timothy Merrill, Henry F. Janes, Martin Flint,
Charles Davis, Edward D. Barber, Samuel N. Swett and
Amos Bliss, Committee of the Antimasonic State Conven-
tion, held at Montpelier, in the State of Vermont, on the
26thof June, 1833, . . . . .204

To James Moorehead, Esq., Secretary of the Meadville (Penn.)

Antimasonic Convention, . . . . .211

To R, W. Middleton, Gettysburg, Pa., . . . . 217

Address to the People of Massachusetts, . . . 219

APPENDIX.

Entered Apprentice's Obligation,

. 275

Fellow Craft's Obligation,

276

Master Mason's Obligation, ....

. 276

Royal Arch Oath, .....

. 278

Knight Templar's Oath, ......

280

Fifth Libation,

281

>

by Hon* Edward Ldvingston, . . . .

382

Me. ADAMS'S LETTERS

MASONIC INSTITUTION.

LETTERS, &c.

TO A REVIEWER OF SHEPPARD'S DEFENCE OF THE
MASONIC INSTITUTION.

The following letter from John Qnincy Adams explains the views
of his illustrious father and of himself, on the subject of Freemasomy.
It was written in reply to a note from our correspondent, who is
reviewing Mr. Sheppard*s Dtfenct of the Masonic InstUtUion, It may
be recollected, that Mr. Sheppard claimed the elder Adams as a patron
of the order; and our correspondent took the liberty of addressing Mr.
Adams, asking for information on this point — Boston Prtss.

Quincy, 22 August, 183L

ScR, — The letter from my father to the Grand
Lodge of Massachusetts, which Mr. Sheppard has
thought proper to introduce into his address, was a
complimentary answer to a friendly and patriotic
address of the Grand Lodge to him. In it he ex-
pressly states that he had never been initiated in the
order. He therefore knew nothing of their Secrets,
their Oaths, nor their Penalties. Far less had their
practical operation been revealed, by the murder of
William Morgan. Nor had the hand of the Avenger

10

;of blood been arrested for five long years — and
probably forever, by the contumacy of witnesses
setting justice at defiance in her own Sanctuary. —
Nor had the trial of an accomplice in guilt marked
the influence of one juror under masonic oaths upon
the verdict of his eleven fellows.

That Mr. Sheppard should resort to a letter from
my father, a professedly uninitiated man, to liberate
the Masonic Institution from the unrefuted charge
of unlawful oaths, of horrible and disgusting penal-
ties, and secrets, the divulging of which has been
punished by a murder unsurpassed in human atrocity,
is to me passing strange. All that my father knew
of masonry in 1798, was that it was favorable to
the support of civil authority; and this he inferred
from the characters of intimate friends of his, and
excellent men who had been members of the Soci-
ety. The inference was surely natural ; but he had
never seen the civil authority in conflict with ma-
sonry itself. To speak of the Masonic Institution
as favorable to the support of civil authority at this
day, and in this country, would be a mockery of
the common sense and sensibility of mankind.

My father says he had known the love of the fine
' arts, the delight in hospitality, and the devotion to
humanity of the masonic fraternity. All these
qualities no doubt then jvere, and yet are conspic-
uous in many members of the Society. They, and

11

qualities of a yet higher order, were not less con-
spicuous in the Order of the Jesuits. They were
conspicuous in many of the Monastic Orders — in
the Inquisition itself, whose ministers, in the very
act of burning the body of the heretic to death,
were always actuated by the tenderest and most
humane regard for the salvation of his soul.

The use of my father's name for the purposes to
which Mr. Sheppard would now apply it, is an injury
to his memory, which I deem it my duty, as far as
may be in my power, to redress. Yoif observe, he
says he had never been initiated in the Masonic
Order. And I have more than once heard from his
own lips why he had never enjoyed that felicity.

Mr. Jeremy Gridley, whom he mentions as having
been his intimate friend, was Grand Master of the
Massachusetts Grand Lodge. He was also the At-
torney General of the Crown, when in October,
1758, my father, having finished his law studies,
and his school-keeping at Worcester, presented
himself — a stranger — poor, friendless, and obscure,
to ask of him the favor to present him to the Su-
perior Court of the Province, then sitting at Boston,
for admission to the Bar. — Mr. Gridley, in his own
oflSce, examined the youthful aspirant with regard
to his professional acquirements ; gave him advice
truly paternal, and dictated by the purest virtue ;
and then presented him to the Court, with a decla-

12

ration that he had himself examined him, and could
assure their Honors that his legal acquirements were
very considerable, and fully worthy of the admission
which be solicited.

This kindness of Mr. Gridley was never forgotten
by my father; I trust it will never be forgotten by
his children. From that day forth, while Mr. Grid-
ley lived, he was the intimate friend, personal and
professional, of my father. He died in 1767. My
father often resorted to him for friendly counsel, and
as he was Grand Master of the Lodge, once asked
his advice, whether it was worth his while to be-
come a member of the Society. In the candor of
friendship, Mr. Gridley answered him — NO — add-
I ing, that by aggregation to the society a young man
I might acquire a little artificial support ; but that he
i did not need it, and that there was nothing in the
Masonic Institution worthy of his seeking to be as-
sociated with it.

So said, at that time, the Grand Master of the
Massachusetts Masons, Jeremy Gridley ; and such,
I have repeatedly heard my father say, was the
reason why he never joined the lodge.

The use of the name of Washington, to give an
odor of sanctity to the Institution as it now stands
exposed to the world, is, in my opinion, as unwar-
rantable as that of my father's name. On the
/mortal side of human existence, there is no name

13

for which I entertain a veneration more profound (
than for that of Washington. But he was never
called to consider the Masonic Order in the light in
which it MUST now be viewed. If he had been,
we have a pledge of what his conduct would have
been, far more authoritative than the mere fact of
his having been a mason can be in favor of the
brotherhood. If you wish to know what that pledge
is, please to consult the recently published writings
of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1, from page 416 to 422,
and especially the paragraph beginning at the middle
of page 418. I would earnestly recommend the
perusal and meditation of the whole passage to all
virtuous and conscientious masons, of whom I
know there are great numbers. If they wish to
draw precepts for their own conduct from the exam-
ple and principles of Washington, or from the delib-
erate and anxious opinions and solicitude of Jeffer-
son, they will find in those pages lessons of duty
for themselves which they might consider it as pre-
sumption in me to offer them. The application of
the principles, in a case not identically the same,
but in every essential point of argument similar,
and in many respects from a weaker to a much
stronger basis, I would leave to their own discretion,
though first divested of its passions. It is, in my
opinion, an unanswerable demonstration of the duty
of every mason in the United States at this day.

14

I never heard, and do not believe, that the Rev.
Dr. Bentley ever delivered or published a sermon
censuring my father for any thing he had ever said
upon the subject of Masonry. The electoral vote of
Massachusetts in 1801 was unanimous for my father.

You are at liberty to make what use of this letter
you please ; giving notice, if you publish it, that it
is in answer to a letter of inquiry received by me.
I am, very respectfully, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO EDWARD INGERSOLL, ESQ., PHILADELPHIA.

[extract.]

September 21, 1831.

Mr. Chandler has truly informed you that I am a
zealous Antimason — to this extent — It is my delib-
erate opinion, that from the time of the commission
of the crimes committed at the kidnapping and
murder of William Morgaii^ it became the solemn
and sacred, civic and social duty of every Masonic
Lodge in the United States, either to dissolve itself,
or to discard forever all administration of oaths and
penalties and ^1 injunctions of secrecy of any kind,
to its members. A believed^t also their duty, though
of less imperious obligation, to abolish all their ill-

15

assorted, honorific titles, and childish or ridiculous
pageants/S

I believed it also a duty sacredly incumbent upon
every individual Freemason in the United States, to
use all the influence in his power to prevail upon his
brethren of the order to the same end, that is, to the^
total abolition of the order, or to its discarding for-
ever all oaths — all penalties — all secrets, and all
fantastic titles, exhibitions and ceremonies heretofore
used in the institution.

Believing these to be their duties, I did not feel
myself called to take an active part in the contro-
versy, which I saw arising in the community con-
cerning them. I took considerable pains to avoid
entering into that controversy. I endured firom
individuals of the fraternity, instigated by the pas-
sions of the order, falsehood, by statements in their
newspapers, that I was one of their members;
perjury to affect the presidential election, by an
affidavit sworn to before a Masonic magistrate by a
Master Mason, that he had sat with me twice at
meetings of a Lodge at Pittsfield — insulting, cajoling,
threatening, anonymous letters from Masonic sources
— abusive slander and vituperation in Masonic news-
papers, pamphlets and even volumes — and other
wrongs of which it behoves me not to speak. All
these I have endured for a space now of at least four
years, without reply, without complaint^ never dis-

16

guising, in the conversations of social intercourse,
the opinions above expressed ; never seeking occa-
sion to promulge them ; and declining, time after
time, on many occasions and in various forms, to
engage in the turmoil of Masonic and Antimasonic
warfare. At last an English Shepherd of Ma-
sonic sheep at Wiscasset in Maine, has the im-
pudence to vouch in my father, as a witness to the
sublime and transcendent virtues of Masonry, and
in the same pamphlet casts a due portion of his
Masonic filth at me — for what? — because in a
confidential letter, not intended for the public, and
published without my consent, I had once written
that I should never be a Mason, and because I had
twice, by special invitations, been present as a mere
spectator at meetings of Antimasons in Boston.
Still I should have overlooked Mr. Sheppard and his
Masonic virtues with the rest, but that the editor of
the Boston Press, undertaking to review his defence
of Masonry, wrote to me to inquire what I knew of
this pretended panegyric upon Masonry by my
father. I then wrote the letter, which you have seen,
and which the friendly commentary of Mr. Walsh,
to whom you may, if you please, with my compli-
ments, show this letter, attributes to the " error of
the moon.^^

I said the crimes committed at the kidnapping
and murder of William Morgan. — Do you know what
they were ? Were they not

17

1. Fraudulent abuse In repeated forms of the
process of the law to obtain upon false pretences
possession of the person of Morgan.

2. Infamous slander in those false pretences by
first arresting him on a charge against him of petty
larceny.

3. Preyious slander in newspaper advertisements
denouncing him as a swindler and impostor, calling
upon brethren and companions particularly to ob-
serve, mark and govern themselves accordingly^ and
declaring that the fraternity had amply provided
against his evil designs.

4. Conspiracy of Masonic Lodges assembled in
great numbers, per fas et nefas^ by the commission
of any crime to suppress his book.

5. Arson — by setting fire at night to Miller's
printing-office, in which building were eight or
ten persons asleep, whose lives were saved only
by the early discovery of the projected conflagra-
tion.

6. Fraud, deception and treachery, in procuring
from Morgan himself a part of his manuscript, which
was finally sent by a special messenger to the Gen-
eral Grand Chapter of the United States in session
at New York.

7. Kidnapping — too successfully practiced upon
Morgan — attempted upon Miller.

8. False imprisonment and transportation of Mor-

18

gan beyond the bounds of the United States into a
foreign territory.

9. A murder, taking nine days in its perpetration
— keeping the wretche^ and helpless victim through-
out the whole of that time in a state of continual
and cruel torture.

Sleep ppon this list of peccadilloes and to-morrow
I will give you upon them a word of comment.
Yours,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO EDWARD INGERSOLL, ESQ.

Quincy, September 2S2, 1831.

Dear Sir, — I gave you in my last letter a list of
NINE crimes, among the most atrocious that can be
perpetrated by human agency, committed in the
original transactions connected with what has been
by an exceedingly inappropriate euphony called the

abduction and murder of William Morgan.

Abduction is a word of lamb-like innocence com-
pared with the ingredients of wickedness which
composed the crime of his taking off. Language
sinks under the effort to express its complicated
malignity.

^.-^ These crimes I allege were committed by the
Jrakrnity^ They were instigated by no impulse of

19

individual {fassions — bj none of the stimulants to
tbe ordinary outrages of man upon man — by no
personal animosity — by no purpose of robbery.
They were the crimes of the Crafty of^ which the
guuty agents, by whom they were consummated,
were but the fanatical instruments.

And here I pray you to remark, that I have stated
these crimes interrogatively. I have inquired of
you whether they were not the crimes committed in
those transactions ; to the end that if you find upon
inquiry that I have set them down incorrectly or
with exaggeration, you may reduce them in number
or in virulence to their just and well-proportioned
standard.

I charge them upon the Crafts as the means by
which public notice had been given beforehand that
the fraternity had amply provided against his de*
signs.

In these crimes several hundreds of persons ap^
pear to have participated, as principals or accessories
before or after the fact. The measures were taken
not individually but as results of corporate delibera-
tion in sundry lodges.

Mr. Miner, one of the most amiable and benevo-
lent of men, has mistaken the terms of the Anti-
masonic proposition. There are no doubt degrees
of exasperation of different temperature, among the
Antimasons ; but I know of none disposed to hold

•^

20

every individual Mason responsible for the tragedy
of Morgan's murder?^ All knovir that there are now,
as there always have been, Masons among the most
respectable and virtuous members of the community.
But they belong to a vicious institution, and it is
their duty to withdraw from that institution — to
abolish it — or to purify it from its vices, oaths,
penalties and secrets.

That the institution is vicious might be very con-
clusively inferred from the effects disclosed in the
Nine crimes above enomerated, even if their causes
were yet secret. But those causes have been di-
vulged. We know that every entered apprentice
of Masonry has, hoodwinked and with a halter round
his neck, administered to him an Oath, the wcNrds
of which he is required to repeat with his lips ;
never to divulge the secrets of the Order, and bind-
ing himself by ^^ no less a penalty than to have his
throat cut across, his tongue torn out by the roots,
and his body buried in the rough sands of the sea at
low water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice
in twenty-four hours.'' Morgan divulged these se-
crets and his fate is the practical commentary upon
the penalty.

The Oath, the Penalty, the Secret, and Morgan's
corpse at the bottom of Niagara River, where a
shrewd brother of the craft " guessed he would pub-
lish no more books," are illustrations of each other.

21

which it would take much sophistry to obscure ;

much prevarication to confuse. Mr. Miner has

taken this oath and bound himself by no less than
this penalty. It is wise and prudent in him there-
fore not to violate the oath, and he would assuredly
not have been the man to execute the penalty upon
Morgan for considering it a dead letter.

But will Mr. Miner tell you that the penalty is,
or that it is not, a dead letter ? If it is, surely the
oath is the same — and then it is mere profanity ; a
taking of the name of God in vain; odious in pro-
portion to the disgusting solemnity of the form in
which it is administered. If it is not a dead letter,
what is it ? Some of the Masonic Defences allege
that it is only an imprecation — ^^ under no less a
penalty than to have my throat cut " — a mere impre-
cation ! Is it not then a paltering with words in
double senses ? A penalty is not an imprecation,
and to have the throat cut across and the tongue torn
out by the roots is not expulsion from a Lodge. The
substance of the defence is, that the penalty is a
brutum fulmen ; that there is no authority existing
in, or conferred by the institution to carry it into
execution; and that it is a special charge to all
Masons upon their admission, to observe faithfully
the laws of God and of the land. But for every
degree of Masonry there is a separate oath and a
diversified penalty, and in some of the higher de-

22

greeSy it includes a promise to carry into effect the
punishments of the fraternity. I have heard of the
instructions from the owner of a piratical cruizer to

>his captain, directing him to take, burn, sink or
destroy any merchant vessel of any nation that might

j fall in his way, and to dispose of the people on board
of them so as that they might not prove afterwards
troublesome ; but to be specially careful not to in-

; fringe upon the laws of nations or of humanity.
This man must have been a Mason of at least the
Royal Arch degree.

That the Oaths and Penalties of Masonry were
not understood, by the multitudes of Masons acces-
sory to the commission of the Nine Crimes enumer*
ated in my list, as mere imprecations, is self-evident.
By them they were understood, according to their
plain, unambiguous import, as an absolute, unequiv-
ocal forfeiture of Life^ and an explicit consent of the
person taking the Oath, that he should be put to
death in the horrid manner described in the terms
of the penalty if he should divulge the secrets of the
Order. But whether the penalty be, as it purports,
a real penalty, or a mere imprecation, will Mr. Miner
say that it is a form of words and obligations fit to
be administered with a solemn invocation of the
name of God to a Christian and a Freeman ? (Cruel
and unusual punishments are equally abhorrent to
the mild spirit of Christianity, and to the spirit of

23

equal liberty. The infliction of them is expressly
prohibited in the Bill of Rights of this Common-
wealth, and yet thousands of her citizens have at-
tested the name of God, to subject themselves to
death by tortures, which cannibal savages would
instinctively shrink from inflicting. ^

It has therefore been in my opinion, ever since
the disclosure of the Morgan-murder crimes, and of
the Masonic Oaths and Penalties by which they
were instigated, the indispensable duty of the Ma-
sonic Order in the United States, either to dissolve ^
itself, or to discard forever from its constitution
and laws all oaths, all penalties^ all secrets j and as
ridiculous appendages to them, all mysteries and
pageants. Believing this to be the duty of the
whole Order, I have deemed it a duty equally indis-
pensable of every individual Mason, to use in calm-
ness and moderation all his influence with the fra-
ternity to come to one or the other of these results.
And I have, since the New York elections of the last
autumn, deemed this to be a duty especially and
above all incumbent upon Mr. Clay. I mean that
he should have set a similar example to that of
Washington, in endeavoring to prevail upon the
Order of the Cincinnati to dissolve themselves, or
at least to discard the most exceptionable parts of
their constitution, in which latter purpose he suc-
ceeded. I have not said this to Mr. Clay, because

24

ia the estimate of his duties he must be his own
counsellor, and I know he has had advice from an-
other quarter, which he has doubtless deliberately
weighed ; but it brings me to a point upon which
I shall ask a few minutes further of your patience,
for your friend hereafter.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO EDWARD INGERSOLL, ESQ.

Quincy, 23 September, 1831.

Dear Sir, — From the nature of the Masonic
Oaths, Penalties and Secrets, and the construction
given to them, not a forced and unnatural one, but
conformable to the plain import of their terms by
multitudes of Masons in the Western part of New
York, the crimes immediately connected with the
murder of William Morgan were committed. I
charge them therefore upon the Institution ; and if
Masonry had been until then a perfectly innocent
and even useful institution ; from the time of the
commission of those crimes it would have ceased to
be so. From that time, the community acquired the
right of calling upon the fraternity to discontinue
and renounce at least the administration of oaths,
the imposition of all forms of penalties, and all
secrets whatever.

25

A large and increasing portion of the community
have made this demand, — a demand just and reason-
able in itself, and the more so, as the Oaths, Pen-
alties and Secrets have been divulged not only by
Morgan's book, but by the concurring testimony of
numerous seceding Masons. The Oaths, the Pen-
alties and the Secrets — whether all disclosed vi^ith
perfect accuracy or not ; whether understood as
they were by the murderers of Morgan, or as ex-
plained by the defenders of Masonry — are unreason-
able^^odjousj. ajjd I believe unlawful. The Oaths of
all Masons, heretofore admitted, if they ever had
any binding force, are dissolved by the fact of the
public disclosure of the secrets, which they had
bound themselves to keep. Their country calls
upon them to disclaini henceforth and forever all
secrets, and as incidental to the injunction of them,
all oaths and penalties. This reasonable andmod-
erate call has not only been resisted by the great
body of Freemasons throughout the United States,
but no man, high or low, eminent or obscure, has
dared to avow this opinion and unite in this call
without being assailed in his reputation, robbed of
his good name, insulted, abused and vilified openly
and in secret, by individual Masons and by organized
Lodges, a body of at least two hundred thousand
men, scattered over the whole Union — all active
and voting men, linked together by secret ties, for

26

purposes of indefinite extent; bound together by
oaths and penalties operating with terrific energy
upon the imagination of the human heart, and upon
its fears ; embracing within the penalty of its laws
the President of the United States and his leading
competitors ; and winding itself round every great
political party for support, like poisonous ivy round
I a sturdy oak, and round every object of its aversion,
{like the boa-constrictor round its victim. Such in
faint and diluted colors is at this time the image of
the Masonic Institution in these United States.
Commanding despotically a large portion of the pub-
lic presses — intimidating by its terrors multitudes of
others — and amidst all its internal dissensions, unit-
ing with the whole mass of its power against every
common adversary, one of the most alarming and
pernicious characters in which it now presents itself,
is that of its political dominion. You tell me that^
you are ABtiraasonic in your opinions and feelings, /
but are perplexed by the mixture of Politics with !
Antimasonry. But you place herein the effect before i
the cause. The mixture of Politics is with Masonry. \
It is the misfortune of IV^r. Clay to be entangled
with Masonry, and I sincerely regret that he has not
felt it his duty, as I think it was, to shake off his
shackles. -His motives I have no doubt were gen-
erous, but the effect is that he sustains and identifies
himself with the Masonic cause.\ That cause is now

27

sustained only by such artificial and unnatural pil-
lars. Neither Mr. Claj nor you (forgive me for
saying) estimate at its true value the cause of Anti-
masonry« You look chiefly to the motives of its
supporters, and distrust them too much. You ask if
Masonry should be made answerable for the crimes
of a few individual Masons ? Should the royal gov-
ernment of Rome have been abolished for the vio-
lence committed upon a single woman ? Should
the decemvirate have been subverted for the murder
of Virginia by her own father ? Should the tribe
of Benjamin have been exterminated for the brutal
abuse of one Levite's concubine? Should the
British nation have gone to war with Spain for the
cutting off by a few Spaniards of one smuggler's
ears ? In all those cases and in numberless others
which swarm in human history, the connection
between the crime, and the institution made an-
swerable for it, was infinitely more remote than the '
cluster of Morgan-murder crimes is from the vitals
of Masonry. But I have spoken only of the crimes
committed at the time. Look at the government
of the State of New York, struggling in vain from /
that time to this — five long years — to bring the I
perpetrators of the murder to punishment. See ^
judges, sheriffs, witnesses, jurors, entangled in the
net of Masonry, and justice prostrated in her own
temple by the touch of her invisible hand.

Several of the abductors have indeed been convict-

28

ed, and among them one sheriff of a county. Three
or four upon their own confession of guilt. You
say you " have been told by men who care much
more for truth than for Masonry, that there is no
reason to believe that any Mason has refused to give
testimony on account of Masonic obligations." —
My dear sir, go to the records of the Courts. You
will find witnesses refusing to testify upon the ex-
press ground of Masonic obligations, avowing that
they consider those obligations paramount to the
laws of the land. You will see them contumacious
to the decisions of the Court, fined and imprisoned
for contempt, suffer the punishment rather than bear
the testimony, and instead of expulsion, be refunded,
at least in part, for their fines, by contributions from
the Lodges. I give you names — Isaac Allen, Eli
Bruce, Ezekiel Jewett, John Whitney, Orsamus
Turner, Erastus Day, Sylvanus Cone, Elisha M.
Forbes, Benjamin Enos.

You will find much more. You will find Masonic
grand and petit juries, summoned by Masonic sher-
iffs, eager to sit upon the trials, perverting truth and
justice when admitted on the array, and often ex-
cluded upon challenge to the favor ; and last of all
you will find one of the men, most deeply implicated
in the murder, screened from conviction by one
Mason upon his jury.

*<It is not and it cannot come to good."

29

That this enormous train of abuses should be
sustained by those who have it in abhorrence, and
that every individual denouncing it should be hunted
down, as if he himself were a pest to society, because
(^"Alasonry has fastened itself to the skirts both of
General Jackson and Mr. Clay, to sink or swim
with them, is itself one of the most objectionable
properties of the Institution. Clay Masonry has
become not only the familiar denomination of a
great political party, but of a party which to put
down a'Jiigh," pure and virtuous manifestation of
popular sen^ibUity? takes to its bosom Jacksonism
itself. So it was in all the New York elections of
last November. So it has been in the elections of
the last Massachusetts legislature. Clay Masons
gave New York to the Regency to put down the
Antimason Granger. Clay Masons made a Jackson
man a Senator for our county of Plymouth, over a
National Republican, with three hundred more pop-
ular votes ; because forsooth he was the Antimasonic
and his competitor the Masonic candidate ; and yet
I hear Masons complain of proscription and disfran-
chisement.

I may perhaps publish part of these letters ; but
without at all implicating you. Show them, if you
please, to Mr. Walsh, as the moon-struck visions of
your friend

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

so

TO EDWARD INGERSOLL, ESQ.

Quincy, 22 October, 1831.

Dear Sir, — One month has elapsed since, in
answer to some remarks in a friendly letter from
jou on the subject of Masonry and its antidote, I
gave you with freedom and candor my sentiments
concerning them, and a view of the progressive
steps by which I had been reluctantly drawn into a
public participation in this controversy. I author-
ized you to show my letters to Mr. Walsh, because
having long been with me upon terms of private
friendship and of personal confidence, he had de-
nounced me to the public, as a Madman (upon this
subject) for a letter written and published in vindi-
cation of my father's reputation from Masonic slan-
der. I had no expectation of converting Mr. Walsh,
though I did hope that this mode of noticing the
severity of his censure might awaken a sentiment of
kindness in his mind, which either had departed or
was slumbering when he consigned me to the Juris-
diction of the Moon. — He since has made me more
than amends by his notice of my Eulogy upon Mr.
Monroe,(and as I have always been a friend of tol-
eration in Politics as well as in Religion, I must
compromise for being considered by him a Lunatic
upon Masonry and the Hartford Convention, in

31

consideration of an over allowance of merit upon
points, on which his opinions concur with mineT^

Within that month, events in relation to the Ma-
sonic controversy have occurred, of no trifling mag-
nitude. That Mr. Walsh and Mr. Sargeant con-
sider Antimasonry as yet a subject for scorn, cer-
tainly staggers my faith in the correctness of my
own impressions. A very sincere respect for their
opinions calls upon me for a severe review of my
own, and makes me feel with double (orce the ad-
monition in your kind letter of the 17th instant to
be specially cautious of error and exaggeration in
any thing that I may say on this score to the
public.

It was indeed under that conviction that I sub-
mitted to you interrogatively^ the list of nine atro-
cious crimes, committed as I believed in connection
with the murder of William Morgan, and which I
charged upon the Masonic Institution. If mistaken^
either in the number or aggravation of the crimes^
or in the principle of imputing them to the institu-
tion, I was desirous of being corrected by your
enlightened judgment and more accurate informa-
tion. I am, therefore, happy to learn that Mr.
Miner will reply to my Letters in ftdl. But he is
the last man in the world, with whom I would wil-
lingly have a controversy. I am perfectly willing to
puUish in his Village Record, that portion of my

S2

letters to you, which I shall ultimately conclude to
publish at all ; but before that, I wish to have the
benefit of your corrections, as well in point of fact as
of principle, derivable from the inquiries, which at
my suggestion you have made. I should also be
glad to know, if Mr. Miner, or you yourself, would
be willing to have your names introduced in the
publication ; you, as the person to whom the let-
ters were addressed ; he, as the person referred to in
them. In naming him, it did not occur to me that
he would see the letters ; but I fully approve of your
showing them to him, and also 1q the other persons
whom you have mentioned. ( From the nature of
the controversy, and precisely because Masonic
Warfare is secret, I have determined to publish
nothing against Masonry but under the responsibili-
ty of my nameTl I have no right, however, to take
the same liberties with the names of others, and
shall carefully avoid using them without permission
or special justifying reason.

The nomination of Messrs. Wirt and EUmaker at
Baltimore, is one of those prominent events, which
have occurred since my letters to you were written.
Mr. Miner has sent me a copy of a printed hand-
bill, addressed to the citizens of Chester County,
signed by himself and seventeen other Masons,
heading a republication of Mr. Wirt's Letter to the
Convention at Baltimore and declaring their concur-

33

rence in every word and sentiment of that Letter.
But that Letter most distinctly declares Mr. Wirt's
approbation both of the End and the Means of the
Antimasons ; the end being the abolition of Free-
masonry, and the means the ballot-box against all
adhering Masons and all neutrals. What part of
my charges then does Mr. Miner mean to contest ?

The declarations of General Peter B. Porter and
W. B. Rochester have also been made public since
the date of my Letters to you. What is there in
my charges, that is not fully sanctioned by them ?
They unequivocally advise the surrender of the
charters. They say Mr. Clay thinks with them.
Why has Mr. Clay refused to say so ? Delicacy ?
Has Mr. Clay ever considered it a matter of delicacy
for a candidate to give pledges of his opinions upon
controverted points of political interest ? Does Mr.
Clay scorn Antimasonry, like Mr. Walsh and Mr.
Sargeant ? If he does, it is evident General P. B.
Porter and W. B. Rochester do not.

I am happy to find you do not. Mr. Wirt frankly
tells the Baltimore Convention, that until two or
three days before they met, he had considered AfUi*
masonry as a farce, and wondered how such an
excitement should have been blown up from what
he thought so trifling a cause. He scorned Anti-'.
masonry — why ? — because he knew nothing of the '
facts, and believed Masonic misrepresentations. :

^J

34

The moment the facts were disclosed to him, or
rather the moment he could bring himself to turn
his face to them, the scales fell from his eyes, he
approves the end of the Antimasons, he approves
their means. His case is the case of thousands and
tens of thousands. Yet Mr. Wirt had sworn to keep
the secrets of Masonry upon no less a penalty than
the fate of Morgan. He had forgotten the secret,
and perhaps the oath. ^How such a man as Mr.
Wirt could ever have taken such an oath, and then
^ forgotten it, is among the inscrutables and unac-
countables of human conduct.

The Antimasons of this Commonwealth have
nominated Samuel Lathrop for Governor in the
place of Mr. Lincoln. They first did me the honor
to nominate me, but I declined. Governor Lincoln
is my personal friend and I approve of his adminis-
tration in general. I regretted that they did not
nominate him. No answer accepting this nomina-
tion has yet appeared from Mr. Lathrop^ Mr. Lin-
coln will at all events be re-elected, for there is not
a State in the Union where Masonry is so strong
as in this. And the Masons will support Lincoln,
though his answer to |)ie Antimasonic Committee is
as severe against Masonry as any thing I have ever
said or written. But there was something in his
remarks upon 'Antimasonry which they took for
scorn, though I did not« Their candidate is a man

35

of excellent character, a warm federalist and hereto-
fore the federal candidate for Goyernor.

The State of Vermont is now purely Antimasonic
in all its branches, with a Governor, Council and
majority of the House of Representatives, elected as
Antimasons against both Clay and Jackson Mason-
ry« Vermont is the first State where this victory
has been achieved. Yet it was not there that Mor-
gan was murdered.

I shall expect somewhat anxiously your exposition
of facts conflicting with my statements. I know
Mr. Stone of the New York Commercial believes
that the kidnappers of Morgan did not at first intend
to murder him. Perhaps he believes that the arrest
of him for petty larceny was not connected with the
project to kidnap him. I know too that he dwells
much upon the alleged baseness of Morgan's moral
character. I set the question of his character aside
— but a charge of thejl against a man for neglecting
lo return a borrowed shirt — what thance has char-
acter against slander like that ?

Very respectfully, your friend,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMa

86

TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD, ESQ., AUBURN, N. Y.

Quincy, 17 October, 183L

Dear Sir, — Your letter from Boston of 16 Sep-
tember was duly received, and not immediately
answered, chiefly from a doubt where to address a
letter, which would reach you without delay at that
time.

The nomination of Candidates for the next elec-
tion of President and Vice President of the United
r States, by an unanimous vote, relieved me from the
only apprehension I had previously entertained, that
the Convention at Baltimore would not be able to
agree in their choice.

Much now depends, for the cause of Antimason-
ry, perhaps every thing depends, upon the course
pursued by the party in the approaching elections in
the State of New York. I learn that in those of
Pennsylvania, the present year will indicate rather a
falling off from the cause, though no real defection
of its supporters. In this Commonwealth the result
may be the same. I shall regret this, because/ the
more attentively I have observed the character of
the Masonic Institution as it now exists in the Uni-
ted States, the more thoroughly I am convinced that
it is the greatest political evil with which we are
now afflicted. ;

37

The Antimasons in this State have concluded to
support a Candidate against the present Governor,
much to my regret. They did me the honor to
nominate me, but I felt it my duty to decline the
offer. They have nominated Samuel Lathrop, but
it is doubted whether he will accept. The opinions
of the present Governor are very decidedly against
Masonry, and the opposition to him will deter many
from joining the Antimasons, who would otherwise
have voted with them.

I pray your acceptance of the within Eulogy upon
James Monroe, and am,

Very respectfully. Dear Sir,

Your obedient servant,

JOHN dUINCY ADABfS.

TO RICHARD RUSH, ESQ., YORK, PENN.
[bxteact.]

Qnincy, 25 October, 1831.

The Masonic and Antimasonic controversy drags
along, deepening — ^widening — embittering, as it pro-
ceeds. In proportion as the popular excitement
against Masonry spreads, the Masons close their
ranks and rally round their hideous idol. Ofjhs
Antimasons, I wish that the discretion and the plain
dealing and consistency were equal to the goo3ness

38

of their cause. I cannot absolutely say they are
hot, but I do not understand some of their recent
movements and must wait to see their consequences
before passing judgment upon them. It has been
circulated by some of them here, as it was stated to
you, that I had suggested to them the name of Mr.
Wirt for their nomination at Baltimore, but it is not
so. I much prefer the nomination of Mr. Wirt to
that of Mr. McLean, which I fully expected ; but
of the proceedings at Baltimore, there are rumors
circulated by the Masonic party which I hope are
without foundation. It is said among other things
that the Convention were as equally divided be-
tween Mr. Wirt and Mr. McLean as forty-one to
thirty-eight, and that it is very doubtful whether the
party will sustain the nomination of their Conven-
tion. Here, an Antimasonic Convention did me
the honor to nominate me for the office of Governor
of this Commonwealth, but I felt it my duty to
decline the nomination. They then nominated
Samuel Lathrop, a very worthy man, but it is said
that without declining their nomination, he has an-
swered that he is and will be a warm supporter of
Mr. Clay for the Presidency. They have not yet
published either my answer or Mr. Lathrop's.

About a month since, Edward IngersoU made in
a letter to me some remarks upon this controversy,
in answer to which I wrote him three letters, part

39

of which, I informed him I might probably publish.
I charged in the form of interrogation nine specific
atrocious crimes, in the transactions connected with
the murder of William Morgan, independent of all
the subsequent judicial prevarications, contumacies
and perjuries. I charged them not upon all individ-
ual Masons, but upon the Masonic Institution, upon
its Oaths^ Penalties and Secrets, and I asked him if
my list of crimes was overcharged in number or
measure, to reduce them to the standard of truth ;
and if they were not chargeable upon Masonry^ to
answer the reasons, which I gave him for so con-
sidering them. Mr. Ingersoll, who avows himself
Antimasonic in principle and feeling, has shown my
letters to several persons, and among the rest to our
friend Miner, who I understand has undertaken to
reply to my letters in full. I learn further that your
Grand Lodge or Grand Chapter are about to enter
upon the arena and to make a powerful defence of
Masonry. A principal object of my letters to
Ingersoll was to hiing out the Masons upon the
Morgan-murder crimes. Their tactics hitherto have
been to smuggle them out of sight. Sheppard^s
Defence speaks of the murder itself as doubtful, and
styles it a mere drunken scrape at which Masons
were present. The formal defence of Masonry by
the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, says, they can-
not tell whether Morgan was or was not murdered,
for that they know nothing about it. So effectually

40

have they, by their management of the Press, kept
those transactions out of view, that thousands and
thousands, like Mr. Wirt, have gone on year after
year scorning and laughing at Antimasonry as a
farce, and thinking Masonry a Sir Roger de Coverly

^-^lub, because they could not look at the facts. My
interrogatory specification of an Anti-Parnassus of
crimes, was intended to bring the Masons to an issue
upon the fact and the law, fairly out before the tri-
bunal of the public. I have promised that if I do
publish any part of my letters to IngersoU, they shall
first appear in Mr. Miner's Village Record. Miner
himself will reply to them, and between him and
me I shall be content to stand alone; but if the
Grand Lodge or Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania
come down upon me, especially during the session
of Congress, I shall want auxiliary force, and hope
you will be in the field again.

Vermont is now completely Antimasonic, because,
from their proximity to the Morgan-murder, the facts
have forced themselves upon the public eye in spite

[ of all Masonic suppressions. The letters of General
Peter B. Porter and W. B. Rochester give a fore-
boding of the prospects of the New York elections
now at hand. There is danger of a falling off in\
this State, owing to the Antimasonic nomination \
against Governor Lincoln. ''"^

Ever faithfully yours,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

41

TO HIS EXCELLENCY LEVI UNCOLN, GOVERNOR OF
MASSACHUSETTS.

[extract.]

Wuhington, 18 December, 1831.

Mt Dear Sir, — I cannot forbear immediately to
acknowledge the receipt of jour two kind letters of
the 11th and 12th instants, although a heavy and
quite unexpected burden of occupation, imposed
upon me by the duties of the station in which I fear
I have rashly permitted myself to be placed, will
deprive me of the opportunity of which I did pro-
pose to avail myself, of communicating with you
upon one topic especially of transcendent interest to
my mind. I mean neither more nor less than the
Institution of Freemasonry in these United States.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives of
the United States has thought proper to appoint me
Chairman of the Committee of Manufactures, a sta-,
tion from which I have in vain endeavored to obtain
a release. It will leave me little time for any thing ^
else, and particularly not for the review, which it \
was my purpose to take, of the Masonic controversy (
now in progress in our own and the neighboring
States, and which I believe destined to produce
consequences deeply affecting the interests, the
happiness, and the liberties of our country.

42

The design must for the present be postponed,
and perhaps my undertaking would, at all events,
have been premature. It is now a little more than
five years since the true character of Freemdsonry^
as existing in this Union, was disclosed to the pub-
lic eye. It first exploded by the catastrophe of one
of the deepest tragedies that ever was enacted upon
the scene of human being, exploded by a complica-
tion of nine or ten of the most atrocious crimes that
ever were conceived in human hearts or committed
by human hands ; crimes committed not by men in
the stations of life to which ignorance is a snare,
intemperance a stimulant, or indigence a tempta-
tion ; not by men under the instigations of malice or
revenge ; but by men in the educated classes of
society ; men who had been instructed in the duties
of Christians and citizens ; men above the pressure
of want ; men, in other respects and independent of
their secret and mystical ties to this Institution, of
fair and respectable lives ; men enjoying the c<Mifi-
dence of their fellow-citizens and holding oflSces of
trust committed to them by that confidence.

We see these men, not in the solitary depravity
of a single heart, but after repeated consultation in
Lodges and Chapters, combined, and, for the com-
mission of more than one of the crimes, abusing the
sacred authority of the law, with which they had
been invested for the furtherance and execution of

43

jastice, to the commission of swindling, blander,
theft, false imprisonment, man stealing, treachery^
arson, transportation of a citizen beyond the limits
of his country^ and, to close the catalogue, ^11/ and
midnighi murder^

Such was the first disclosure of the Secrets of
Freeroasorary, — such was the practical disposition of
its laws. The laws themselves were afterwards re-
vealed. Ic was to prevent the revelation of them
that all these crimes were committed^ and^ hy the \
retributive justice of Providence, it was the very '
commission of the crimes which brought the laws loj
light.

It is not then to Freemasonry as a secret society^
of mysteriously concerted operation and portentous
power, of strangely mingled royal and priestly titles
with fantastical fooleries of attire and pageantry, of
ostentatious devotion and hidden carousals^ of char-
ity and of revelry in the proportion of Sir John
FalstafiPs tavern bill for bread and for sack ; it is
sot to this Society, such as it was before the murder
of William Morgan, that I intended to entreat your
attention as a citizen, a Christian, a magistrate and
a man« Freemasonry as known to the world before
the commission of the Morgan-murder crimes, might
sot be worthy of your attention. From the time
when the crimes were committed, and the laws by
which they were committed, were revealed, that a

44

citizen of the United States should exist, who can
ask himself, ^^ What is this to me ? '^ is as unac^
countable as the fascinations of Freemasonry itself.
But the disclosure of the crimes and the disclo-
sure of the laws were not enough — five years has
the goyernment of New York been struggling, not
as it ought instantly to have done, to strangle this
hydra with unnumbered heads, but to execute upon
the criminals a feeble and ineffectual justice. Five
years in the face of this nation have Masonic sher-
iffs, jurors and witnesses betrayed their duty to
their country and their God, to screen the guilty
from punishment ; five years have lodges, chapters
and encampments aided and abetted in the conceal-
ment of the crimes and in the escape of the crim-
inals from justice ; while a gang of two hundred
thousand Masons, firom every nook and comer of the
Union, are joining in one concerted yell of persecu-
tion ! persecution ! and certifying and swearing that
they never took an oath incompatible with their
duty to their religion or the laws of the land. ^^ In
generalibus latet doltis," was the maxim of the old
logicians. The denied of tjie Royal Arch oath is a
miserable prevarication. (The Entered Apprentice's
oath and penalty is itself a violation of all religion
I and of the Constitution of our Commonwealth.^ To
I say that such an oath is not to affect religion or
politics, is to unite impossibilities. It is to take a

45

firebrand in tbe hand, by thinking of the frosty
Caucasus. The four Royal Arch Masons who sunk
Morgan's body in the Niagara River, inflicted upon
him the penalty of the Entered Apprentice's oath.
Their names are known probably to every Lodge
in the State of New York, but they cannot be con-
victed, for none will testify, and the Grand Chapter
at New York, which has the power of expulsion
throughout the State, so far from expelling any one
of the kidnappers or murderers of Morgan, has aided
diem with money to support them in prison and to
pay their fines. But I must abridge this letter.
From the combined consideration of these three
elements,

1. — ^The practical disclosure of the character and
laws of Masonry by the Morgan-murder crimes.

2. — ^From the subsequent disclosure of its written
laws, oaths and penalties in literal conformity and
obedience, to which these crimes were committed.

3. — From the struggle of five years' duration
between the government of New York to bring
these crimes to punishment,* and the successful
Masonic combination to defeat the law of the land
and to screen the guilty from its power.

From these combined considerations there appear
to me to result solemn and sacred duties to every
citizen of the Union, and especially to every citizen
invested with authority. It was therefore that I com-

46

menced this correspondence by the inquiry whether
you was acquainted with the facts. They are
known to few. I find by your answer, that some
of them, not unimportant, are still unknown to you.
The extent of the combination, preceding the mur-
der of Morgan, is even now known only to the
surviving accomplices in the guilt. Of the- four
immediate perpetrators of the murder, one may yet
reveal the horrid tale, the minute particulars of
which are known to many worthy brothers of the
craft. Much of Masonic participation, both before
and after the fact, will probably never be known
abroad from the recesses of the Lodge. / With these
observations I have mingled no reference whatever
to the Antimasonic party, their proceedings or their
leaders. I look only to their cause ; and if that is
under bad management, I can only express the hope
that it may be more energetically taken into their
owa hands by the virtuous and the wise. ^
I am, very respectfully,

Dear Sir,
Your friend and servant,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMa

47

TO WILLIAM L. STONE, ESQ.

Washington, 24 December, 183L

Dear Sir, — The British Acts of Pariiament, to
which I referred in our conversation the other even-
ing are two, —

1. Statute 37 George 3d, ch, 123, (19th July,
1797,) making the administration of unlawful oaths
felony, punishable by transportation for seven years.

2. Statute 39 George 3d, eh. 79, for the suppres-
sion of seditious societies, (12 July, 1799.)

The fifth, sixth and seventh sections of this last
statute except from its penalties, under very rigor-
ous restrictions of police, the Lodges of Freemasons
as they have long been usually held in Great Britain ;
but not Chapters or Encampments. From Profes-
sor Rolnson's book and other sources I have been
informed that the Lodges usually held in Great
Britain, never confer beyond the first three degrees
in Masonry, and content themselves with avenging
the murder of Hiram Abiff by those historical per-
sonages Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum. I sought you
yesterday, immediately after the adjournment of the
House, in the Library of Congress and aftnwards at
Gadsby's without success. It was to give you the
above information concerning the British Statutes
and to ask the favor of your company to dine with

48

me to-morrow, Christmas day, at five o'clock.
Let me expect you, and believe me your assured
friend,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS-

TO WILLIAM L. STONE, ESQ., NEW YORK.

Washington, 30 June, 1832.

Dear Sir, — I have received your kind letter and
the elegant volume which you have done me the
honor of addressing to me on the subject of Masonry
and Antimasonry. Anticipating in the course of a
few days a release from occupations, which deprive
me at this moment of the power of perusing your
work with the deep attention which the importance
of the subject requires, I shall avail myself of the
first hours at my disposal to devote them to that
purpose. In the mean rime I cherish the hope that
the influence of this comprehensive and impartial
survey of the Masonic Institutions upon the public
mind will contribute to induce the voluntary aban-
donment or renunciation of it, which I have long
thought and more firmly believe from day to day
to be desirable for the peace and quiet of the
community.

I am, with great respect and esteem,
Dear Sir,
Your firiend and obedient servant,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMa

49

TO WILLIAM L. STONE, ESQ.

Quincy, 19 Aaguat, 1832.

Dear Sir, — On receiving at Washington the
volume of Letters upon Masonry and Antimasonrj,
which you did me the honor of addressing to me, I
wrote you a few lines of acknowledgment, with the
assurance of my intention to read with deep atten-
tion the work, to the composition and publication of
which I felt great satisfaction in believing that I
had contributed to give occasion. I have accord-
ingly perused it with the most earnest solicitude, and
the result has been not only a confirmed conviction
that the Institution of Freemasonry ought in these
United States to be totally and forever abolished,
but that this event is a consummation devoutly to be
wished.

In the three letters which I wrote about a year
since to a friend in Philadelphia, and which were
submitted to your perusal, I presented in the form
of interrogation a list of nine atrocious crimes under
the denomination of Morgan-Murder Crimes^ with
the inquiry whether they had not been so committed
as in a great degree to have lost the character of
individual guilt in their perpetrators and to have
assumed that of associate or corporate offences ; as
conspiracies, in which numerous bodies of men con-

50

stituting Lodges, Chapters and Encampments of
Freemasons were implicated ; — and inquiring fur-
ther, whether the commission of those crimes had
not been previously instigated by the oaths admin-
istered, the obligations imposed, and the penalties
imprecated or denounced, in the ordinary forms of
the admission of candidates to the numerously grad-
uated hierarchy of Freemasonry.

That these crimes had been committed — that the
efficient impulse to the commission of them had been
the Masonic Oaths, Obligations and Penalties — and
that they were corporate crimes conceived, projected
and matured for action in the Masonic deliberative
bodies in the Western part of the State of New
York, I firmly believe from a mass of irresistible
evidence, which had been growing into certainty for
a series of years. On the other hand many of the
most important facts, both in relation to the commis-
sion of the crimes and to the purport of the Masonic
Oaths and Obligations, had been vehemently con-
tested. A considerable number of seceders from
Masonry had revealed all the secrets of all the de-
grees, and all the Oaths and Obligations and Penal-
ties, as established in the Lodges, Chapters and
Encampments in all the region round where the
murder had been perpetrated. The books of David
Bernard and Avery Allyn, both seceding Knight
Templars, had been published. Bernard had been

51

admitted to the ineffable degrees in New York —
Allyn at New Haven in Connecticut. The Rev.
Moses Thacher and Pliny Merrick had declared
that the Royal Arch Oath was in many Lodges in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts administered with
the words ^< murder and treason not excepted. '^
That it was so administered in the State of New
York, had been testimony extorted and most reluct-
antly given upon oath by Royal Arch Masons upon
trials before Courts of Justice ; and yet, adhering
Masons were solemnly declaring that they had taken
no such oaths ; that they acknowledged no obligation
incompatible with the laws of God or of the land ;
that the only penalty ever inflicted was expulsion ;
and that they did not believe the oaths and obliga-
tions W€re otherwise understood by Masons every
where.

In the controversial condition of the facts upon
the issue which seemed to have been made up be-
tween the adhering and the seceding Masons, I had
preferred stating them to our friend at Philadelphia
in the form of interrogation, rather than to assume
them as granted. He was a Mason, inclining to
Antimasonry, but unwilling to join its political stand-
ard. He knew little of what had taken place in the
Western counties of the State of New York, and
had been made to disbelieve the most prominent
facts of the tale of horror connected with the fate of

//

62

Morgan/ I was desirous if possible to keep myself
en tirelj/disen tangled from all the Politics of Anti-
masonry, but this was becoming exceedingly diffi-
cult. I wished for a more perfect exposition of facts
from a source fully informed ; from a person in whose
candor and integrity I could place entire reliance, and
M^ not so connected with either of the parties as to be
under a bias disqualifying to the perception or to
the judiciary faculty. I was well assured that I
should find this in your book, and I have not been
disappointed. J The book is marked with integrity
and candor, which not even the fifth libation has
been able to prevent.

There is a lingering attachment to the Institution,
as it had been in better days, like the affection of
a parent, discovering in bitterness of soul the
profligacy of a favorite child, which adds a double
seal of confirmation to the disclosures which you
have had the intrepidity to make and to sustain.
There are many things in the volume, which I do
not see as you do ; but the sincerity of your own
conviction of the truth of all that you affirm is appa-
rent in every page. I speak of the intrepidity of
your disclosures, because I have not dissembled to
myself the peculiar position in which you stand to-
wards the Institution, both as a man and as a member
of a responsible profession. I see you as neither an
adhering nor a seceding Mason. I think I perceive

53

the conflict in your own mind between the obliga-
tion of Masonry which you had taken upon you, and
the duties of your profession as the Editor of a
public Journal — duties to the community at large, ^^y"
which you had resolved never to compromise or to
betray. I think 1 see that when you took the Oaths
of the Entered Apprentice, the Master Mason, the
Royal Arch and the Knight Templar, you little
imagined the temptations, the trials and the dangers
into which they were to lead you, by their conflict
with your duties as a Man, a Christian and a Citi-
zen. You seem scarcely to be aware even now that
the trials through which you are passing originated
there. You are unwilling to acknowledge it to
yourself. But the trials are around you. You have
betrayed no Masonic secret. You have forfeited no
obligations of your own. But you have justly con-
cluded that of what had been divulged by others it
would be absurd to make longer a secret, and dis-
honest to deny it as false. Yet you are in the midst
of Brother Masons, men whom you respect and es-
teem, who still hold themselves bound by the ties,
which you consider as dissolved, who still tyle the
lodge and swear the candidates upon horrible pen-
alties to keep secrets now as common as the stairs
that mount the capitol. These men look upon you
as an unworthy brother, even if they have not dared
to expel you. How will these men tolerate your

64

exposure of the contrast between the public procla-
mation and the secret appropriation of the Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the State of New York, at
which upwards of one hundred and ten subordinate
Chapters were represented in February, 1829, as
detailed in your twenty-first letter? How will
they endure your confirmation of the essential facts
in Avery Allyn's afiidavit, that Richard Howard
bad confessed himself the executioner of Morgan ?
That he made this confession at an Encampment
of Knights Templars at St. John's Hall in the City
of New York, under the sealed obligation, and had
then been furnished with money and means to ab-
scond and go to Europe, as related in your twenty-
second letter? How will they bear the twenty-
fifth letter ? The account of the unblushing grant
of money by the Grand Lodge of the State of New
York to one of the most active Conspirators ? of the
debates in which you bore a part? and of the ap-
propriation, since which you have never crossed the
threshold of a lodge room? You are still sur-
rounded by members of the Grand Lodge, of the
Grand Chapter, and of the Encampment at St.
John's Hall. And although perhaps you may re-
ceive no more letters from Washington like that of
the 25th of February, 1827, there are other modes
of hostility in which we well know that the Ma-
sonic power can make itself felt.

55

But if the boldness with which jou have dared to
speak is not without its perils now, neither will it, I
trust, be without its remembrance or its recompense
hereafter. I believe your letters to be well adapted
to promote a great National reform of morals in the
abolition of Freemasonry, and the more extensively
they are read, the more beneficial will be their
effect.

This letter is confidential, and if satisfactory to
you, may be followed by others suggested by the
information contained in your book, and perhaps
discussing some of your opinions. The Masonic
controversy will form a large chapter in the Annals
of this Union probably for several years to come. It^
presents already a prominent feature in the canvass 1
for the Presidential Election, and that is precisely j
the reason for wishing to meddle as little with it as t
possible until that question shall have been settled.^
It will assuredly survive that event, and in all proba-^
bility will form an essential ingredient in more than,
one quadrennial choice of President, if more thanj
one we are destined to have. It is my deliberate^
opinion that the Antimasonic party ought not to
subside, or to suspend its exertions, till Freemasonry
shall have ceased to exist in this country. The
career before them is long and dreary, but not dis-
couraging. The object is single, just and honora-
ble. You have put your hand to the plough. Let

66

it not be withdrawn. For contributing so largely
to the end, you will deserve to be ranked among the
benefactors of mankind.

I am, very respectfully, your friend,

JOHN dUINCY ADAMS.

TO WILLIAM L. STONE, ESQ.

Quincy, 25 August, 1832.

Dear Sir, — In my last letter I observed, with the
freedom and candor which I thought due to you as
the best return I could make for the honor and obli-
gation you had conferred upon me, by addressing to
me your Letters upon Masonry and Antimasonry,
that there were many things in the book which I
did not see as you did.

Some further explanation is due from me upon the
subject. (The principal objects of your book were
two. First, to vindicate the character of an. ejni-
nent and illustrious citizen of New York, the late
Governor of the State, De Witt Clinton, from the
opprobrium cast upon him, of having been person-
ally and deeply concerned in the murder of Morgan ;
and, secondly, to prove, by a fair and impartial
statement of the abuses to which the Masonic Insti-
tutions have been perverted, that they ought to be
voluntarily surrendered and abolished.

67

These objects were just and laudable. They are
in your volume faithfully pursued ; nor is there in
the execution of your |dan, any thing in the letters
unsuitable or redundant. You observe, in the first
letter, that it is no part of your design to write a
vindication of Freemasonry as such, — but to de^
scribe Freemasonry as you received, understood and
practiced it yourself, and as it has been received,
understood and practiced by hundreds of virtuous
and intelligent men, with whom you have associated
in the lodge room. To this, the first ten letters are
devoted, and they are, in my estimation, not less
valuable than those which succeed them. But as
Bishop Watson wrote an Apology for the BlUe, I
trust you will not consider me as intending any dis-
paragement to that part of your work, if I consider
it in the light of an Apology for Freemasonry, as re*
ceived, understood and practiced by yourself and
many others. In that light it is exceedingly well
adapted to its purpose. It is the only rational plea
for the institution that I have seen, since this con-
troversy began ; for all the other defences of the
handmaid, which have come to my knowledge, have
smacked too much of the obligation to come to the
aid of a distressed brother, and extricate him from
his difficulties, right or wrongs to pass for any thing
other than aggravations of the Morgan-murder
crimes.

8

68

You have taken all the degrees to, and including
that of, the Knight Templar.SThe oaths, obliga-
tions and penalties, as administered to, and under-
stood by you, contained nothing incompatible with
your duties to your country and your kind. What-
ever there might be in them, apparently incongru-
ous with the prior and paramount duties of the citi-
zen and Christian, was explained and given in
charge in such manner as to be made entirely sub-
ordinate to them. The obligations, as understood
hy you, are all auxiliaries to Christian benevolence
and patriotism, and so they are undoubtedly under-
stood by great multitudes of Masons, in all parts of
the United States. That they are otherwise under-
stood, also, by multitudes of the worthy brethren of
the craf^ (worthy according to the Masonic meaning
of the word), is apparent in every page of your
book.

In your third letter, p. 23, you allude to an opin-
ion which I once expressed to you in the following
terms : — ^^ You, sir, have assured me that the obliga-
tions supposed to be administered in conferring the
first degree is quite enough, in your view, to estab-
lish the wicked character of the institution.''

Whether I did make use of terms quite so strong in
the freedom of unrestrained conversation, or whether
your reference to it is by inference of your own,
from words not quite so comprehensive, is not ma-

69

terial. The sentiment which I do recollect to have
expressed, and which is rooted in my conviction was,
** that the Entered Apprentice's oath, obligation and
annexed penalty, was in itself vicious — and such as
ought never to be administered by man to man."
That no explanation of it could take away its es-
sentially immoral character — and that the institution
of Freemasonry, requiring absolutely the administra-
tion of it to every candidate for admission, necessa-
rily shared in its immorality.

In saying this, I disclaim all intention of censure
upon any individual who has ever taken this oath.
I consider it according to its own import — stripped
of all warrant of authority from the great names of
illustrious men who may have taken it.

My objections to it are these : —

First : That it is an extrajudicial oath, and, as
such, contrary to the laws of the land.

Secondly : That it is a violation of the precept of
Jesus Christ — Swear not at all.

Thirdly: That this oath pledges the candidate,
in the name of God, that he will always hail, for
ever conceal and never reveal any of the secret artSy
parts or points of the mysteries ^^ of Freemasonry, to
any person under the canopy of heaven, except it
shall be to a true and lawful Mason, or within the
body of a just and regular lodge of such ; and not
unto him or them until after due trial, strict exami-

60

nation, or bj the lawful information of a brother, I
shall hare found him or them as justly and lawfully
entitled to the same as I am myself."

The arts, parts, points and mysteries of Masonry

are afterwards, in the oath, denominated the secrets

af the craft. These are all general and indefinite

terms. The candidate, when he takes the oath, is

kept in total ignorance of what these secrHs of the

trqft consist. He knows not the nature nor extent

of the oath that he takes. He is sworn to keep

I secret he knows not what. The general assurance

[ diat it is not to affect his religion or politics, is the

; m^e word of another man. The assurance that it

is not to interfere with any of Bis duties,'^'but a

mockery, when the administration oi the oath itself

is a Yiolaiion of law.

He swears to reveal the secrets of the craft to no
person under the canopy of heaven, except to a
brother Mason, or a Lodge. The single exception
expressed, is an exclusion of all others. There is
no exception for the authority of law, or for the
confession enjoined upon the Catholic brethren by
their religion. I use this illustration to show, that
the intrinsic import of the oath is incompatible with
law, civil and religious.

Now what these secrets of the craft are, to the
keeping of which the candidate, thus ignorant of
tkiek import, is sworn, is never defined. Thiey^are

61

differently understood by different Masons. The
oatEsj obligations and penalties themselves, have,
until very recently, been understood, I believe, uni-
versally to form a part of these secrets. Those of
the first three degrees were first revealed by the
publication of Morgan's book ; those of the subse-
quent degrees, to that of the thrice illustrious Order
of the Cross, were divulged by the Convention of
the seceding Masons at Le Roy, on the 4th of July,
1828. Those in Morgan's book I understand to be
admitted on all hands to be correct. But with re-
gard to the obligations of the Red Cross Knights,
and the Templars, as disclosed by that Convention,
you say that, although you have received those de-
grees, and assisted in conferring them, you know of
no such obligations in any degrees. Your impres-
sion is, that they must have been devised westward
of Albany, and imposed upon candidates without
the sanction of any governing body. You do not
question the correctness of the publication of these
degrees by the Convention of seceding Masons.
You are authorized to state, that when the forms
of those obligations were received in the city,
measures were taken by the Grand Encampment to
ascertain whether any Encampment under its juris-
diction had, in fact, ever administered any such ob-
ligations, and, if so, where and by whom they had
been imposed.

62

It is earnestly to be hoped that the Grand En-
campment will sincerely and seriously pursue this
inquiry, and make known the result of their re-
searches to the world. In the mean time, observe
the inferences to be drawn from this extreme diver-
sity of the terms and import of the obligations as
administered in different lodges, chapters and en-
campments ; but all under the sanction of this tre^
mendous oath of the Entered Apprentice — all secu-
red by this soul-shackling pledge, given in advance,
and in ignorance of what they are to be, and all
riveted by the penalty to which I shall next advert.
Fourthly : " All this, I promise and swear — bind-
ing myself under no less penalty than that of hav-
ing my throat cut across from ear to ear, my tongue
torn out by its roots, and my body buried in the
rough sand of the sea, at low water mark, where the
tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours."
/ We have been told, over and over again, that this
I is understood by Masons to be merely an invocation
"^^ — and the committee of investigation of the Legis-
lature of Rhode Island have gravely told the world
that the explanation given by Masons to this penali-
ty is, ^< that I would rather have, or sooner have, my
throat cut, than to reveal," &c. It is unfortunate
that this explanation is in direct contradiction to the
plain and unequivocal import of the words of the
oath. The oath incurs the penalty for its violation.

63

The explanation promises fidelity, though at the ex^
pense of life. The oath imprecates the death of a
traitor, as a penalty for treachery. The explanation ^""^
claims a crown of martyrdom for constancy. If Ben-
edict Arnold had been taken in the act of treason to
his country, he would have suffered no less a penalty
than death, — though not the barbarous and brutal
death of the Masonic obligation. When Joseph
Warren suffered death on Bunker's Hill, is there an
explanatory Mason who dare tell you that he suf-
fered a penalty? Yet so it is, that the Masonic
oath, and its explanation, confound all moral dis-
tinctions to the degree of considering the death of a
martyr and the death of a traitor as one and the
same thing.

This explanation of the penalty annexed to the
Entered Apprentice's oath, it must be acknowledged,
is not ingenuous — it is not even ingenious. It is a
grand hailing sign of distress ; or it is a Masonic
murder of the English language.

I say this with the less hesitation, because, in
your seventh letter, containing your defence of the
Masonic obligations, you have disdained to take this
preposterous explanation of the Rhode Island Ma-
sons. You know too well the import of words.
You candidly avow that the oaths and obligations /
are out of season — out of reason — and ought to be
abolished. I will, therefore, forbear to press upoa

64

you the still grosser absurdity of the pretended
Rhode Island explanation, when applied to the
Master Mason's and Royal Arch penalties. The
Master Mason's penalty is to have his body severed
in two in the midst, and divided to the north and
south, his bowels burnt to ashes in the centre, and
the ashes scattered before the four winds of heaven,
that there might not the least track or trace of remem-
brance remain among men or Masons of so vile and
perjured a wretch^ as I should be. And this, accord-
ing to the Rhode Island explanation, is to be the
consequence of his dying like Hiram AbifT, rather
than betray the Masonic secrets.

. My fifth objection is to the horrible ideas, of which

I the penalty is composed. It is an oath of which a
I common cannibal should be ashamed. Even in the
barbarous ages of antiquity. Homer tells you, that
when Achilles dragged the dead body of Hector
round the walls of Troy, it was a dishonest deed
— dsixea ftrjdsjo Bgya — and Plato scvcrcly ceusurcs
Homer for even introducing this incident into his
poem. A mangled body, after death, was a thought
y' disgusting even to heathens. From the very
thoughts, and still more from the lips, of a Christian,
it should be forever excluded, like indelicacy from
the mouth of a female. \The Constitution of the
United States, and of Massachusetts, prohibit the
infliction of cruel or unusual punishments, even by

65

the authority of the law. ^But no butcher would
mutilate the carcass of sHsullock or a swine, as the
Masonic candidate swears consent to the mutilation
of his own, for the breach of an absurd and senseless
secret. I cannot assent to jour denomination of
these penalties as idle or unmeaning words. They
are words of too much meaning — of hideous signifi-
cancy. The Masons are bound for their own honor
to expunge them from their records for ever. Would
that they could be expunged from the language,
dishonored by their introduction into its forms of
speech.

I remain, very respectfully, your friend,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO WILLIAM L. STONE. ESQ.

Qaincy, 29 August, 1832.

Dear Sir,— Long, and, I fear, tedious, as you
have found my last letter, I was compelled by a
reluctance at making it longer, to compress the ob-
servations in it upon the intrinsic nature of the
Masonic oaths, obligations and penalties, within a
compass insufficient to disclose my opinion, and the
reasons upon which it is founded.

I had said to you that the institution of Freema-
sonry was vidousy in its first step, the initiation

9

^^

66

oath^ obligation and penalty of the Entered Appren-
tice. To sustain this opinion, I assigned to you five
reasons — Because they were, .

1. Contrary to the laws of the land — extrajudi-
cially taken and administered.

2. In violation of the positive precept of Jesus
Christ.

3. A pledge to keep undefined secrets, the
swearer being ignorant of their nature.

4. A pledge to the penalty of death /or violation
of the oath.

5. A pledge to a mode of death, cruel, unusual,
unfit for utterance from human lips.

If, in the statement of these five objections, upon
principles of law, religion and morals, there be any
thing unsound, I invite you to point it out. But if
you contest either of my positions, I must entreat
you not to travel out of the record.

I might ask you not to consider it a refutation of
either of these reasons, to say that you and all other
honest and honorable Masons have never so under-
stood or practiced upon this oath, obligation and
penalty. \ The inquiry is, not what your practice, or
that of others has been ; but what is the obligation,
its oath and its penalty. (

I must request of you to give me no explanation
of this oath, obligation and penalty, directly contra-
ry to their unequivocal import; that you will not

67

explain black by saying that it means whitCy or even
by alleging that you so understand it. I particularly
beg not to be told that honorable, intelligent and
virtuous men, George Washington and Joseph War-
ren for example, understood that the penalty of death
for treachery meant the death of martyrdom for
fidelity.

I would willingly be spared the necessity of re-
plying to the averment that the patterns of honor
and virtue whom I have just named, with a long
catalogue of such men, have taken this oath, and
bound themselves to this obligation, under this pen-
alty. For I might deem it proper to inquire,
whether the very act of binding such men, by such
oath, to such obligation, under such penalty, is not
among the sins of the institution.

I must ask you to suppose that such institution
kad never existed — that it were now to be formed,
and that you were one of ten or twenty virtuous and
intelligent men, about to found a charitable and con-
vivial secret association. Suppose a committee of
such a meeting appointed to draw up a constitution
for the society, should report the Entered Appren-
tice's oath, obligation and penalty, as a form of
initiation for the admission of members. I do not
ask you whether you would vote for the acceptance
of the report ; but what would you think of the
reporters ?

68

I consider this as the true and only test of the
inherent and essential character of Masonry, and it
was under this conviction, that I told you that the
Entered Apprentice's oath was sufficient to settle,
in my mind, the immoral character of the institu-
tion.

It is, perhaps, too much to ask of you an explicit
assent to these positions, because you may consider
it an acknowledgment of error. But this is the first
and fundamental consideration, from which I draw
the conclusion that Masonry ought forever to be
abolished. It is wrong— essentially wrong — a seed
of evil, which can never produce any good. It may
perish in the ground — it may never rise to bear
fruit ; but whatever fruit it does bear must be rank
poison; it can never prove a blessing but by its
barrenness.

My objections to this seminal principle of Mason-
ry apply, in sdl their fmrce, to the single obligation,
the form of which is given in the Appendix to your
volume, (page 3,) where it is stated to have been
the only obligation, taken for all three degrees, so
late as 1730, when only three degrees of Masonry
were known. The oath is in fewer words, but
more comprehensive ; for the obligation is to keep
"<Ae secrets or secrecy of Masons or Masonry.^^
There is indeed a qualification in the promise not
to write, print, mark, &c., which seems to keep the

69

obligation within the verge of the law. For the
promiss is to reveal nothing whereby the secret
might be unlawfully obtained. The penalty is also
death, not for constancy, but for treachery, '^ so that
there shall be no remembrance of me among Ma-
sons."

This oath, obligation and penalty, the only one
taken in all the degrees of Masonry known but one
century ago, is the prolific parent of all the degrees,
and all the oaths, obligations and penalties since in-
vented, and of the whole progeny of crimes descend-
ed from them. The natural and unavoidable ten-
dency of such an obligation is the multiplication of
its kind. This tendency is among the most obvious
causes which have led to the interdiction of all such
oaths and obligations, by the civil, the ecclesiastical
and the moral law. The obligation is to keep un-
defined secrets. As they are undefined in the obli-
gation itself, there is nothing in the constitutions of
Masonry to define them, or to secure uniformity
either oTIthe secrets or of the obligations. Every
lodge may vary the secrets, obligations and penal-
ties ; and, accordingly, they have been so varied,
that scarcely any two adhering Masons give the
same account of them. Almost the only defence of
Masonry, after the publication of the books of David
Bernard and Avery Allyn, consisted in efibrts to
discredit them, by denying that the oaths, obliga-

70

tions and penalties, were truly stated by them. A
secret institution in three degrees ; the secret of
^ch degree being withheld from the members of the

/degrees inferior to it, is a perpetual temptation to
the initiated to multiply the secrets and the degrees.
Thus it is that the lodges have grown into chapters
•—the chapters into encampments — the encampments
into consistories; and, so long ago as December,
1802, the Grand Inspectors of the United States
of America issued, at Charleston, South Carolina,
a circular, announcing the existence and the names
of thirty-three degrees of Masonry.
r The secrets, to the keeping of which the Entered
Apprentice is sworn, are indefinite. In genuine
Masonry, when revealed to him, he finds them friv-
olous. You acknowledge that your first feeling

^upon receiving them was disappointment. So must
it be with every reflecting, intelligent man ; nor is
it conceivable that any such Entered Apprentice, on
leaving the lodge after his admission, should fail to
have observed, with pain and mortification, the con-
trast between the awful solemnity of the oath which
he has taken, and the extreme insignificance of the
i secrets revealed to him. It is to meet this unavoid-

rable impression, that the institution is graduated.
The lure of curiosity is still held out, and its attrac-
I tive power is sinewed, by the very disappointment
'^ which the apprentice has experienced. He takes

71

the degrees of Fellow Craft and Master Mason, and
still finds disappointment — still finds himself bound
by tremendous oaths to keep trifling and frivolous
secrets. The practice of the institution is deceptive
and fraudulent. It holds out to him a promise
which it never performs. Its promise is light — its
performance is darkness.

.—-Btrrlf introduces him to intimate, confidential and
exclusive relations, with a select and limited circle
of other men — and to the same confidential and ex-
clusive relations, with great multitudes of men, be*
longing to every civilized nation throughout the
globe. The Entered Apprentice's oath is merely an
oath of secrecy — but the candidate who takes it, has
pledged himself, by his application for admission, to
conform to all the ancient established usages and
customs of the fraternity. And the charge of the
Master, giv^en him upon the Bible, compass and
square, presents him with three precious jewels, — a
listening ear^ a silent tongue and a faithful hearty —
all, of course, exclusively applicable to the secrets
revealed to him ; and he is told that the listening
ear teaches him to listen to the instructions of the
Worshipful Master ; but more especially to the cries
of a worthy distressed brother ; and that the faithful
heart teaches him to be faithful to theinstructions
of the Worshipful Master at all times, but more
especially to keep and conceal the secrets of Mason*

72

ry, and those of a brother ^ when given to him in
charge as such, that thej may remain as secure and
inviolable in his (the Entered Apprentice's) breast,
as in his (the brother's) own. Two check words
are also presented to him, — truth and union^ — the
explanation of which concludes that the heart and
tongue of Freemasons join in promoting each other^s
welfare, and rejoicing in each other's prosperity.

Thus the essential nature of the Entered Appren-
tice's oath, preceded by his pledge to conform to all
the established usages and customs of the fraternity,
and followed by the charge of the Master, is secret
and 6xcZu5ii7e ^ favor, assistance and fidelity to the
brotherhood and brothers of the craft.

Now combine together the disappointment which
every intelligent accepted Mason must feel, at the
puerility of the secrets revealed to him, compared
with the appalling solemnity of the oath exacted
from him for the purchase of his lambskin apron, and
the secret ties with which he has linked himself
with multitudes of other men, exclusively to favor,
assist and be faithful to each other, and acknowledge
that the temptation to make the secrets more im-
portant, and to turn them to better account to the
craft, must be irresistible. Judge this system a priori,
without reference to any of the consequences which
it has produced, and say if human ingenuity could
invent an engine better suited to conspiracy of any

73

kind. /The Entered Apprentice returns from the
lodge with his curiosity stimulated, his imagination
bewildered, and his reason disappointed. The
mixture of religion and rooralitj, blended with false-
hood and imposture, which pervade all the ceremo-
nies of initiation, is liiie arsenic mingled up with

balm, j

'^Most dangerous
Ib that temptation which doth lead as on
To sin, in loving virtue."

If the candidate has been educated to a sincere
and heart-felt reverence for religion and the Bible,
and if he exercises his reason, he knows that all the
tales of Jachin and Boaz, of Solomon's Temple, of
Hiram Abiff and Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum, are
impostures — poisons poured into the perennial foun-
tain of truth — traditions exactly resembling those
reprobated by Jesus Christ, as making the word of
God of none effect. If, as in this age but too often
happens, he enters the lodge a skeptic, the use of the
Bible there, if it have any effect upon him, will turn
him out a confirmed infidel. The sincere and ra-
tional believer in the gospel can find no confirmation
of his faith in the unwarrantable uses made of the
Holy Scriptures to shed an unction of their sanctity
around the fabulous fabric of Freemasonry ; while
the reprobate miscreant will be taught the uses to
which fraud and secrecy may turn the lessons of

10

74

piety and virtue, inculcated in the sublimest effu-
sions of divine inspiration. In those Scriptures we
are told, that when ^^ the children of Israel did se-
cretly those things that were not right against the
Lord their God," they became idolaters, and were
carried into captivity. Their cities then were soon
filled with a mongrel race of Babylonians and Assy-
rians, who perverted the word of God with the im-
postures of paganism ; burnt their children in fire,
to the gods of Sepharvaim ; and ^^ feared the Lord,
and served their graven images ; " — an emblem of
Freemasonry, far more illustrative of its character
than the tragedy of Hiram k\^S.

The Entered Apprentice's oath is, therefore, in
its own nature, a seminal principle of conspiracy —
and this objection applies to the only oath originally
taken in all the degrees of Freemasonry at its first
institution. The ostensible primitive purposes of
Freemasonry were all comprised in good fellowship.
But to good fellowship, whether of labor or refresh-
ment, neither secrecy, nor oath, nor penalties are
necessary or congenial. In the original institution
of Freemasonry, there was then an ostensible and
a secret object, and, by the graduation of the order,
the means were supplied of converting it to any evil
purpose of associated power, screened from the dan-
ger of detection. Hence all the bitter fruits which
the institution has borne in Germany, in France, in

75

Mexico, and, lastly, in this our beloved country.
Nor could they have failed to be produced in Great
Britain, but that, by sharp and biting statutes, they
have been confined within the limits of the ostensi-
ble object of the brotherhood — good fellowship.
I am, with much respect. Dear Sir,

Your friend and servant,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMa

TO WILLIAM L. STONE, ESQ.

• Quincy, 0 September, 1832.

Dear Sir, — In my two preceding letters you
have seen my objections drawn from the fountains
of law, religion and morals, against the first step of
Freemasonry — the oath, with its obligation and pen-
alty, administered to the Entered Apprentice, at his
initiation. You will certainly understand that, in
this denunciation of the thing, it is not my intention
to include a charge against any individual who has
ever taken the oath — as, on the other hand, I ex-
clude all palliation or justification of it, upon the
mere authority of the great names of men by whom
it has been taken.

It is a pledge of faith from man to man, solem-
nized by an appeal to God, and fortified by the ex-
press assent of the swearer to undergo the penalty of

76

death, and mutilation at or after death, for its viola-
tion. Such it is in itself, and no explanation can,
without doing violence to the natural connection be-
tween thought and language, take away this its
essential and unequivocal import.
tr^The objections are, 1. To the oath; 2. To the
[^promise ; 3. To the penalty.

/I. To the oath J as a double violation of the law
Ayf the land, and of the law of God. Upon this there
/ appears, by your seventh letter, to be very little, if
any, difference of opinion between you and me.
The principles assumed and admitted in the intro-
duction to your seventh letter, are unciuestionably
correct with reference to law, to religion and morals
— and it is equally clear that they are all disregarded
in the administration of the Masonic oaths. It is a
vice of the institution, which no example can justify,
and which no sophistry can extenuate. Your ac-
knowledgment is magnanimous — your argument is
unanswerable.

But if the administration of the oath is, of itself,
a violation of the laws both of God and man, as well
by him who administers as by him who takes it, is
it not a further mockery of both, for the Master, in
the very act of transgressing the laws, and of sub-
orning the candidate to transgress them with him,
to say to him, ^^ This obligation is not intended to
interfere with your duty to yourself, your neighbor.

77

your couQtry or your God ? " Is there not falsehood
and hypocrisy superadded to the breach of the law,
and profanation of the name of God, in the injunc-
tion and explanation itself ? He calls upon the can-^ 7
didate to perform an unlawful act ; and he tells him, /
that it is not to interfere with his religion or politics, 1
or, with deeper duplicity, that it is to interfere with /
none of his civil, moral or religious duties. This
self-contradiction of word and deed is the very es-
sence of all sanguinary religious fanaticism. It is
the very vital spark of the spirit which armed with
daggers the hands of Ravaillac and Balthasar Gi-
rard. Under the excruciating pangs of the torture,
Ravaillac, to his last gasp, protested that he thought
he was serving God by the assassination of a king
who was about to declare war against the pope ;
and he signed his name to one of the interrogatories
at his trial — Francois Ravaillac —

Qae toujoiirs dans mon ccear
Jesus soit le vainqueur.

"In my heart, for ever, may
Jesus hold conquering sway."

If the murder of Henry the Fourth of France had
been concerted in a Masonic lodge room, and the
Master had administered to the perpetrator, as a
part of his oath, the obligation to commit that deed,
he might, with just as much reason and consistency,

78

have assured him that this oath would not interfere
with his religion or politics, or with his duty to him-
self, his neighbor, his country, or his God, as the
Master of a Masonic lodge can now give such an as-
surance to a candidate for admission, before admin-
istering to him the oath of an Entered Apprentice.

2. To ihejprpmise.

The promise is to keep the secrets of Masonry,
and never to reveal them to any human being, not
already initiated. I have already objected that this
promise is indefinite. The promiser knows not the
nature of the secrets which he is sworn to keep ;
nor are they ever explained to him. In your seventh
letter (p. 71), you have explicitly stated your own
understanding of what the secrets were, and that
you have always found your intelligent brethren
ready to concur in that opinion. Your definition of
themes so clear and satisfactory, that, if it were in
its very terms so explained by the Master, before
administering the oath, this objection would be re-
moved.

" The essential secrets of Masonry '' (you say)
" consisted in nothing more than the signs, grips,
passwords and tokens, essential to the preservation
of the society from the inroads of impostors, togeth-
er with certain symbolical emblems, the technical
terms appertaining to which served as a sort of uni-
versal language, by which the members of the

79

fraterDlty could distinguish each other, in all places
and countries where lodges were instituted and con-
ducted like those of the United States."

In NOTHING MORE. But uo such explanation is
ever given to the candidate for admission, when the
oath is administered to him, or ever afterwards — and
you very candidly admit that this is not the under-
standing entertained of the secrets of Masonry, by
" the foolbh brethren.'' Now, herein consists my
objection to the promise. It is to keep secret, he
knows not what — he never knows — ^and this in-
definiteness is essential to preserve the graduation
of tbe order. It is essential to keep alive the ctin-
osiiji of the candidate, who, at each degree that
he attains, is always comforted in his disappoint-
ment by the assurance that there is, in the next
degree, a secret worth knowing.

If it be said that the exaction of a promise to
keep a secret must necessarily precede the commu-
nication of the secret itself, and that, therefore, no
promiser can know, in advance, what it is that he
pledges himself to keep secret, I reply, that my ob-
jection is to the indefiniteness not only of the secret
itself, but of the promise. Jurors in courts of law
are sworn to keep secret the counsels of their fellows
and their own. The juror, to be sure, knows not
what the counsels of his fellows will be, when he
swears to keep them secret, but he knows that they

80

cannot extend beyond the line of their duty to
decide the matter committed to them — and there is
nothing indefinite in the obligation from the mo-
ment when it becomes binding upon him. The
Masonic swearer is ignorant of the extent both of
his oath and of his promise — and after his admis-
sion, he still is never informed what are the secrets
which he has been sworn to keep.

In your enumeration of the essential secrets of
the order, you do not include the oaths themselves,
as administered to the candidates for admission.
These, therefore, are not secrets which any Mason
is bound to keep. But has this been the under-
standing of intelligent Masons heretofore ? Why,
then, have the forms of the oaths never been made
public, in the Masonic books published by authority,
or without objection from the order ? Why have
they become so different in different places? Why,
in all the trials which have arisen from the murder
of Morgan, and in which evidence of the forms of
those oaths, obligations and penalties was essential
to the issue, have not authenticated copies of them
been produced in court by the Masonic witnesses
themselves? In Massachusetts, in Vermont, in
Rhode Island, there have been numerous defences
of Masonry, by individual Masons and Masonic
lodges, very indignantly denying, that they ever
took or administered the obligations with the words

81

" murder and treason not excepted,'' and generally
denying that they were under any obligations con-
trary to the laws of God, or of their country ; but,
anxious as they have all been to fix the charge of
slander upon Avery Allyn and David Bernard, and
to make the world believe that the forms of Masonic
oaths, obligations and penalties, disclosed in their
books, were fabrications of their own, never used
by any Masonic body — still, in no single instance,
have they ever produced or certified to the oaths,
obligations and penalties as used or administered by
themselves, until the investigation instituted last
winter, by the legislature of Rhode Island, and con-
ducted in a spirit so friendly to Masonry, and so
adverse to Antimasonry, that it could scarcely have
been more so, had every member of the investi-
gating committee but one, been himself an adhering
Mason. In that investigation, the committee, like
yourself, considered the secrets of Masonry to con-
sist of the signs, grips, passwords and emblematical
figures of speech, and no more — and, with regard
to these, they indulged the brotherhood, by not in-
quiring into them, by interrogation of adhering
Masons — giving notice that they should take all
these profound mysteries to have been correctly set
forth in the books of Allyn and Bernard, unless
positive testimony to the contrary should be volun-
tarily offered by adhering Masons.
11

82

But the committee did require testimony from the
adhering Masons, of the oaths, obligations and pen-
alties, as taken in the lodges, chapters and encamp-
ments in Rhode Island, and it was given. The
Appendix to the Report of the committee contains
this evidence, and authenticates upon full, adhering
Masonic authority, the oaths, obligations and penal-
ties, as taken and administered in Rhode Island, of
eleven degrees, from the Entered Apprentice to the
Royal Master.

It is, therefore, to the indefiniteness of the prom-
ise in this authenticated obligation of the Entered
Apprentice, that I take my first objection — and this
indefiniteness is not only intrinsic in the terms of
the obligation itself, but is aggravated by the previ-
ous pledge of the candidate to conform to the estab-
lished usages and customs of the order, and by the
charge given by the Master who administers the
oath, which charge enjoins it upon the candidate as
a duty to obey the instructions of the Master of the
lodge, and to keep the secrets of a brother Mason,
committed to him as such. The obligation includes
also the pledge to keep secret the transactions of
the lodge — without exception.

There are thus, according to the understanding
of the Rhode Island Masons, and to yours, three
distinct classes of secrets, to which every accepted
Mason was bound : First, to the secrets of Masonry,

83

consisting only of the signals of communication and
tokens of mutual recognition between the members
of the fraternity ; secondly, the secrets of brother
Masons, communicated as such ; and, thirdly, the
transactions in the lodge. And of these, you and
they consider the first class only as essential to the
order. But what is the principle of this distinction ?
None such is found in the oaths themselves, nor in
any of the Masonic books, nor in the charges given
by the Master to the candidate for admission.
Does the promise of secrecy given by the Entered
Apprentice extend to the transactions of the lodge ?
It does not, in the terms of the oath. It does not,
by the practice of the Rhode Island lodges; for
they enjoin this portion of the secrets by their by-
laws upon the penalty of expulsion, but those same
by-laws contain no provision whatever for the viola-
tion of the essential secrets. In all the oaths and
obligations subsequent to the degree of the Entered
Apprentice, the promise includes the secrets of a
brother Mason, communicated as such, but not the
transactions of the lodge, chapter or encampment.
These are deemed binding only by virtue of the
other promise of the candidate, that he will conform
to the usages, customs and regulations of the frater-
nity. But this distinction itself proves that, in
Masonic contemplation, the obligation to keep secret
the transactions of the lodge is not the obligation,

84

with oath and penalty, to keep the essential secrets
of the craft. For disclosing the transactions of the
lodge, the penalty is expulsion. But the by-laws
contain no such penalty for disclosing the secrets of
the craft. What is this but a recognition that the
penalty for divulging the secrets of the craft is
different from the penalty for revealing the trans-
actions of the lodge ? — that it is a crime of much
higher order, sanctioned by the oath with its penalty,
and for which it would be alike inconsistent and
absurd to provide by a by-law or regulation of the
lodge.

My first objection to the promise of the Entered
Apprentice's obligation is its indefiniteness — and
this objection extends to all the obligations of the
subsequent degrees, and to the institution itself,
which is no where limited to any number of degrees,
and is thereby rendered a ready engine of conspir-
acy for any evil purpose.

A second objection to the promise is its univer-
sality. It is to keep the secrets of the craft, and
never to reveal them to any person under the canopy
of heaven. The single exception has no other
effect than to exclude all other exceptions. It is
confined to initiated brothers and regular lodges, to
whom the Entered Apprentice can, of course,
reveal nothing, they being already in possession of
secrets which he promises to keep. The promise,

85

therefore, is never to reveal the secrets of Masonry
to any person under the canopy of heaven.
I shall pursue this subject in another letter.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMa

TO WILLIAM L. STONE, ESQ.

Quincy, 10 September, 1832.

D£AR Sir, — The second objection to the promise
of the Entered Apprentice's obligation is its univer-
sality. The candidate swears that he will never
reveal any of the undefined ^^ arts, parts or points of
the mysteries of Freemasonry, to any person under
the canopy of heaven.^^ This promise, like the ad-
ministration of the oath, is, in its terms, contrary to
the law of the land. The laws of this, and of every
civilized country, make it the duty of every citizen
to testify the whole truth of facts, deemed by legis-
lative bodies, or judicial tribunals, material to the
issue of the investigation before them. It is also
the duty of a good citizen to denounce and reveal
to the authorities established to execute the laws
against criminals, any secret crimes of which he has
in any manner acquired the knowledge. Now,
there is nothing in the artSj parts or points of the
mysteries of Freemasonry^ which, in the trial of a
judicial cause, or in an investigation of a legislative

86

assembly, may not be justly deemed material to the
issue before the court or the legislature. Of its ma-
teriality, the judges, or the legislators, have the ex-
clusive right to decide. No witness, called before
a court of justice, or an authorized committee of a
legislature, can refuse to answer any question put
to him by the court or the committee, on the ground
that he deems it immaterial to the trial before them.
This principle becomes more glaringly obvious, when
applied to the promise never to reveal the secrets of
a brother Mason, communicated as such, contained
in the Master Mason's oath. But the principle is
identically the same. The Entered Apprentice
promises never to reveal to any person under the
canopy of heaven, that which the laws of his country
may, the next day after he makes the promise, make
it his duty to reveal to any court of justice before
which he may be summoned to appear, or to any
committee of the legislature of the State in which he
resides, or of the Union. The promise is, therefore,
unlawful, by its universality.

You will remember that I am maintaining the
position that the obligation, under oath and penalty,
administered to and taken by the Entered Appren-
tice is, in itself, essentially vicious. I now state
the promise in the words universally admitted to be
used in that ceremony. Do you deny that they
contain an unlawful promise ."^ Yes, say you, be-

87

cause the candidate is told, by the Master who
administers the oath, that ^^ he is expressly to un-
derstand that nothing therein contained is to inter-
fere with his political or religious principles, with
his duty to God, or the laws of his country." And
you, and all honest and worthy masons, take and
administer the oath with this understanding. Well,
then, the promise is, in its terms, contrary to the law
of the land, but you take and administer it with
tacit reservation, furnished to you not by the action
of your own understanding, but by the previous
notification of the Master who administers the oath
to you. So, and so only, you say, the terms of the
promise are to be construed. But, in the first place,
this is not a question of construction, but a question
of mental reservation. The words are plain and
unequivocal ; but you pronounce them with a reser-
vation, that the promise shall bind you to nothing
contrary to law. Now, what possible reason or
justification can there be for exacting a promise,
under oath, the real meaning of which is totally dif-
ferent from that of the terms in which it is couched ?
You swear a man to one thing, and you tell him it
means another. But, secondly, how far does your
exception extend ? You say the promise extends
only to the essential secrets of Masonry, and to the
lawful transactions in the lodges, and to the secrets
of Masons, not criminal — the former of which you

88

consider of not the least consequence to the world,
but essential for the preservation of the society.
The secrecy of transactions in the lodges you be-
lieved to be merely conventional ; and the promise
of keeping the secrets of a brother Mason are can-
celled, when the secret confided to you by him is of
a crime committed by himself.

Now, all these exceptions resolve themselves into
the tacit reservation, authorized by the declaration
of the Master, before administering the oath, that it
contains nothing contrary to law. If the oath is
taken with that reservation, it applies equally to the
promise to keep the essential secrets of the order,
and to all the others. And, therefore, a Freemason,
summoned before the committee of a legislature, or
a court of justice, is bound not less to disclose the
grips, signs, due guards and tokens, than he is to
divulge the crimes of a brother Mason, known to
him.

The simple question I take to be this : I suppose
a Freemason to be summoned before a legislative
committee or assembly, or judicial tribunal, to tes-
tify. Is he or is he not bound to answer any inter-
rogatory put to him by their authority, and which
they require of him to answer, respecting the essential
secrets of the craft? If he is, bow can these secrets
be kept, and of what avail are all the oaths admin-
istered to Masonic candidates, whether with or with-

89

out penalty ? If he is not, then the obligation of the
Masonic oath supersedes the obligation of the law
of the land. And if the Masonic oath of secrecy is
paramount to the law of the land, with regard to the
mysteries of the craft, where is the principle which
restores the supremacy of the law, to require the
disclosure of Masonic crimes ? The Masonic oath
makes no discrimination between the secrets — the
promise is to keep them all. The declaration of
the Master, that there is nothing unlawful in the
' oath, makes no discrimination — it applies to all, or
it applies to none.

With this view of the subject, you will perceive
that I deem it altogether immaterial to the argu-
ment, whether the words ^^ murder and treason not
excepted" are or are not included in the Royal
Arch Mason's promise of secrecy — whether he pro-
mise to espouse the cause of a brother Mason, right
or wrong, or not — and whether the words " and
they left to my own election " are or are not an in-
novation in the Master Mason's oath. But when
you ask me, as an act of ^^ Justice, to believe that,
should a brother Mason tell you, as a secret, that he
had robbed a store, you would very speedily make
the matter public in the police office," I must, while
very cheerfully and sincerely believing you, observe,
that it would be at the expense of the very explicit
import of the Master Mason's oath. By that oath,

13

90

the Master Mason promises to keep the secrets of
a brother Master Mason, as secure and inviolable as
if they were in his own breast, " murder and treason
excepted." That is, excepting two specific enume-
rated crimes. What, then, is the meaning of this
exception ? — and why are they excepted ? The
naming of them emphatically, leaves all other crimes
included in the promise, and excluded from the ex-
ception. The Master Mason's promise does, there-
fore, by the plain import of its terms, pledge him to
keep secret the knowledge of any crime committed '
by a brother Master Mason, and communicated to
him as a Masonic secret, other than the two specified
by name ; and if you should be in the unfortunate
condition of having such a secret communicated to
you, and should give notice of it at the police office,
you would discharge your duty to your country, only
by considering your Masonic promise as null and
void. For here is the dilemma. If the Masonic
promises are all made with the tacit reservation that
nothing contrary to law is understood to be included
in them, then the exception of murder and treason
in the Master Mason's oath is not only superfluous,
but deceptive ; since it limits to two specific crimes,
the exception already referred to, of all crimes what-
soever ; and if the Masonic promises are made with-
out the reserved exception of all unlawful things,
then the exception of murder and treason, from the

91

secrets which the Master Mason pledges himself .to
keep, leaves all other crimes as distinctly under the
shelter of the promise, as if they had been included
in it expressly by name.

3. To tlie penalty — death by torture and mutila-
tion.

I have, in a former letter, exposed the fallacy — I
must say, the disingenuous fallacy — of the attempt
to defend this part of the Masonic obligation in the
late Rhode Island legislative investigation* In the
tale of '^ January and May," when the doting, blind
and abused husband, by the miraculous interposition
of the king of the fairies, receives instantaneous res-
toration of sight, to witness his own dishonor^ the
queen of the fairies, with equal promptitude, sug-
gests to the guilty wife an explanation. The
Masonic brotherhood of Rhode Island are as ready to
take a suggestion from the queen of fairies as the
youthful and studious May. The committee of the
Rhode Island legislature was composed of men too
intelligent to be duped like the wittol January; yet
were they contented to be told, and to believe, that
the penalty of death ^br revealing a secret, was iden-
tically one and the same thing as the heroic martyr-
dom of death rather than to reveal a secret. All
language is a system of logic* All language is a
system of morals. All figurative language is trans-
lation. The words may say one thing and intend

92

another; but translation must not confound moral
distinctions, and irony and dedications are the only
figures of speech which are permitted in human in-
tercourse to ** wash an Ethiop white."

Your own exposition of this penalty is more can-
did and more plausible. You consider the words in
which the penalty is expressed, as unmeaning; be-
cause the candidate has been told that the obligation
contains nothing contrary to law ; and because the
society neither possesses nor exercises the power to
authorize the execution of the penalty. This, of
course, considers the penalty as null and void.

And so, one would think, it must be considered by
every fair-minded and honorable man. And why,
then, do fair-minded and honorable men adhere to
this penalty ? Is it worthy of fair-minded and hon-
orable men to use words full of sound and fury, sig-
nifying nothing ? — to use them as the sanction of a
promise ? — to use them with an appeal to the ever-
lasting God ? Are the words so charming in them-
selves, is the thought conveyed by them to the mind
so irresistibly fascinating, that even now twelve
hundred fair-minded and honorable men of Massa-
chusetts declare, in the face of their country and of
mankind, that they will not renounce the use of
them ? O, say not what fair-minded and honorable
men will or will not do ! Twelve hundred men of
Massachusetts, men of fair and honorable minds, even

93

now, after all the arts, parts and points of the mys-
teries of Freemasonry have been revealed and pub-
lished to the world, nay, after the very check-word,
transmitted to them for their protection against the
intrusion of book-Masons upon their mysteries, had
been divulged with all the rest — after all this, twelve
hundred Masons of Massachusetts have declared that
they will not renounce or abandon the mysteries of
Freemasonry ; — that they will still continue to hold
their meetings, to tyle their lodges, to brandish their
drawn swords for the exclusion of cowans and eaves-
droppers, and to swear the knave or simpleton who
will henceforth submit to take the oath, never to
reveal, never to write, print, cut, carve, paint, stain
or engrave, secrets known to every one who will
take the trouble to read — secrets, in their own esti-
mation, insignificant and puerile — secrets, in the
estimation of great multitudes of their fellow-citizens,
disgusting and blasphemous; — that they will continue
to swear the candidate to this oath of secrecy, under
no less a penalty than that of having his throat cut
across from ear to ear, his tongue torn out by the
roots, and his body buried in the rough sand of the
sea, at low water mark, where the tide ebbs and
flows twice in twenty-four hours. But that they
will take care to explain to him, that this only means
he will rather die than reveal to any person under
the canopy of heaven these secrets known to all the

94

world ; that his oath is not to interfere with his
religion or politics, nor with any of his duties to his
neighbor, his country, or his God. For thus speaks
the mystic muse of Masonry :

And many a holy text around she strews,
To teach Masonic moralists to die.

Have I proved that the Entered Apprentice's
oath is a breach of law, human and divine ? — that its
promise is undefined, unlawful and nugatory ? — that
its penalty is barbarous, inhuman, murderous in its
terms, and, in its least obnoxious sense, null and
void ? If so, my task is done. The first step in
Freemasonry is a false step. The Entered Appren-
tice's obligation is a crime ; and, like all vicious
usages, should be abolished.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO WILLIAM L. STONE, ESQ.

Quincy, 4 September, 1832.

Dear Sir, — On the 19th ult. I wrote you a letter
containing some observations upon the volume of
letters upon Masonry and Antimasonry, which you
have done me the honor of addressing to me. It
was confidential, and intimated my intention to pur-
sue the subject further hereafter. So far as it is
connected with the presidential election now ap-

95

proaching, I abstain from all interference with it.
But the abolition of Freemasonry in this Union, is a
cause which you have made your own, and which I
trust you will not abandon.

In the seventh letter of your volume, in confirma-
tion of the statement that the Masonic obligations
are administered in very different phraseology in
different places, you refer me to enclosed copies of
the obligations of the seven degrees as they were
given twenty-five years since in the Lodge and
Chapter of an Eastern city, you add among other
things that these forms were introduced and adopt-
ed at Rochester in the State of New York, when
Royal Arch Masonry was introduced there. And
you invite my attention to the difference between
the Royal Arch obligation as contained in this man-
uscript and that in Bernard's book.

There is in the volume a reference to the Note B.
in the Appendix. But there I find only an apology
for the omission of this manuscript because it would
have swollen the volume to a size beyond your
intention.

If it would not give you too much trouble I should
be obliged to you for a communication to me of this
manuscript, which you can forward by the mail and
which will be returned to you as you may direct.
I am, very respectfully, Dear Sir,

Your friend and servant,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

96

TO HIS EXCELLENCY LEVI LINCOLN, GOVERNOR OF
MASSACHUSETTS.

[extract.]

Washington, 1 Februuy, 1832.

Dear Sir, — My Antimasonry has cooled down a
little while objects less important but more urgent
absorb my time and attention ; but it has not been
extinguished by the mental reservations of the
twelve hundred certifiers to their own integrity,
which I never thought of impeaching, nor has it been
remarkably edified by the ostensible investigation of
the Committee of the Rhode Island Legislature, or
its results, i share in no spirit of Antimasonic pro^
scripiioriy if such there beK but if I had any right of
person or property pending in a Court of Justice
with an Entered Apprentice or a Knight Templar
for my adversary, I should much disincline to see any
man sworn upon my jury, who had been present at
the murder and resuscitation of Hiram Abifi", and still
more to any one who should have crawled upon all
fours under the living Arch. In other words, I do
hold as disqualified for an impartial juror, at least
between a Mason and an Antimason, any man who
has taken the Masonic oaths and adheres to them,
not excepting the twelve hundred certifiers them-
selves.. With regard to church fellowship I am not

97

prepared to speak so particularly. I am in church

communion with several of the twelve hundred, and

have perfect confidence in their integrity. But I ;

I
would challenge them as jurors, between me and the I

Master Mason who made oath that he had been .
twice present with me at a Lodge in Pittsfield ; or
between me and the Master Mason who had the
impudence to vouch in my father as a patron of y
Masonry.

I have said that I share in no Antimasonic pro-
scriptions, if such there be ; and I repeat the assur-
ance, that so far from approving or countenancing
their nomination of any candidate in opposition to
you, I did unequivocally disapprove of that measure
and as far as I could dissuade them from it. I am
happy to give you this assurance, nor will I press
further for the name of him who attempted to induce
in your mind a different belief. I have no doubt he
was acting under Masonic law as faithfully as the
brethren of the Royal Arch, who Morganized the
bottom of Niagara River. — Agnosco fratrem.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

13

If

H /

98

TO ALEXANDER H. EVERETT, ESQ., BOSTON.
[extract.]

Quincy, 18 Angust, 1832.

y^ With respect to conciliating the Antimasons in
\ this Commonwealth, though it is rather late for the
National Republicans to begin, it may be better
late than never. I most sincerely and heartily wish
that they would. The National -_Re£ublicans of
this Commonwealth have not understood^-Jhey^ do
not and I fear wiU not understand, the state of the
Antimasonic question. About a year ago the Grand
Lodge of Rhode Island published a formal defence
of Masonry, in which they said they could not tell
whether Morgan had been murdered or not, for they
knew nothing about it. I have read a declaration
published on the last day of the last year, signed by
twelve hundred Masons of this our own State, who
speak of a high excitement, which had been in the
public mind, carried to it ^^ by the partial and tn-
fiammatory representations of certain offences com-
mitted by a few misguided members of the Masonic
Institution in a sister State." The National Repub-
licans of Massachusetts know nothing about these
certain offences ; but they have for two years past
taken most especial care to turn out of office every
Antimason upon whom they could lay their hands,

99

all the while bitterly complaining of the persecuting
and prescriptive spirit of political Antimasonry. J)

The cjiuse of Antimasonry must and will survive
the next Presidential election. And if the Nation-
atHepublicans of Massachusetts really wish for the
co-operation of Antimasons, I have no doubt they
C£^ obtain it. Whether they can agree upon a
ticket for the Presidential election now so near at
hand, is doubtful in my mind, but I take it for
granted that for this time the National Republicans
can carry their , elections without them. The Ma-
sonic declaration of last winter, to which I have
alluded, considers the Antimasonic excitement as
having subsided, and they certainly did appear to
have lost ground in this State, and at least to have
gained none in the States of New York and Penn-
sylvania. .There is now an apparent union of the
two parties in New York, but whether it will be
cordial or successful is very problematical. The"^
National Republicans there are more sanguine than /
the Antimasons, and there are wounds between
them not easily to be healed. You know how it is^
here.

Upon the subject of Antimasonry I have not I
suffered myself to be excited, although there has j
been no lack of provocations. But I do know
something about the Masonic murder of Morgan,
and the clusters of crimes perpetrated for the

^

100

suppression of bis book. I know sometbing also
of the laws, oaths, obligations and penalties of
Masonry, and I have not been unobservant of their
practical effect, from murder under the sealed obli-
gation, down to the prevarication of pretending that
to have the throat cut from ear to ear means expul-
sion from the Lodge. If the Masonic controversy
were now raging in Cochin-China, and the name of
Hiram Abiff had never been heard upon this con-
tinent, the subject would be worthy of investigation,
as a philosophical inquiry into the mysteries of
human nature. I have endeavored to consider it as
a question upon the first principles of morals. (j[
have sought for the facts from the Masonic as well
as from the Antimasonic side, and have read Henry
Brown, as well as Avery Allyn and David Bernard.
' Col. Stone's letters, which you have doultfless seen,
were addressed to me, in consequence of inquiries
which I had addressed to a brother Mason of his in
Philadelphia, which were communicated to him.
Stone is a Kaight Templar, and as^you know, a
very ardent National Republican. yHis Masonic
spirit lingers with him through his whole book, but
he is an honest man; unperverted, even by the
fifth libation ; and a bold one, or he never would
have dared to proclaim the truths contained in those
Letters. I ask your particular attention to the
Letters from twenty-one to twenty-five inclusive,

101

and to the forty-eighth, and I wish you would
recommend the perusal of them to those of your
National Republican friends, who are accessible to
reason upon this subject. ^I abstain purposely Jrom
any public manifestation of opinion upon this topic,
to avoid all appearance of ;iiilerfering^- with the
approaching Presidential election.

Faithfully your friend,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO RICHARD RUSH, ESQ., YORK, PENNSYLVANIA.

Quincy, QO August, 1832.

My Dear Sir, — Since my letter of the third
instant, I have not had the pleasure of hearing from
you. /in the interval I have been solicited with
some urgency, on one hand by the National Re-
publicans, and on the other hand by the Anti-
masons of this Commonwealth, to repair to theirv
respective standards, which are not here the same, j
There is yet some obscurity with regard to the
result of the compromise, said to have taken place
in New York and Pennsylvania ; and there is. no
prospect of an agreement between them here.

Of this I have had the opportunity to satisfy my-
self, and it has confirmed my conviction of the pro-
priety of my abstaining from interference with the

102

elections. I have therefore declined attending as a
delegate at the Antimasonic State Convention, to
be held at Worcester on the 6th of next month, to
make nominations for the offices of Governor and
Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth, and of
an Electoral ticket for the choice of President and
Vice President of the United States.

But while refraining from all agency in the ap-
proaching elections, I am, as a true and faithful Anti-
Mason, in search of light. Now there are three
modes of lighting a lamp, with which I am almost
equally familiar. One at noon-day, with a burning-
glass, by the radiance of the sun. One in times of
clouds and darkness, with flint, steel, tinder and a
match ; and one either by night or day, in sunshine
or in shade, kindled at the light of another lamp.
In the adalogy between the worlds of matter and of
mind, electioneering seems to me to light the lamp
by the collision of flint and steel. But I, reserving
that process for use when the others fail, or cannot
be applied, content myself for the present with
lighting my lamp by the flame of another, or by the
concentrated illumination from the source of light.

I have, therefore, since my return home, read
with close and critical attention the volume of Let-
ters addressed to me by Col. Stone. This book
was, if not composed, at least addressed to me in
consequence of those letters, which about this time

103

last year I wrote Edward Ingersoll, and which he
then communicated to Mr. Stone. They contained
a specification of nine crimes, atrocious as any that
can be committed by man, with inquiries whether
they had not been committed in the transactions
connected with the murder of Morgan, and whether
the organized institution of Freemasonry, its cor-
porate bodies of Lodges, Chapters and Encamp-
ments, were not accessory to all these crimes before
or after the fact.

Mr. Stone's book is the answer to these inquiries.
He is, against the Institution, the best of witnesses.
He has taken ten degrees of Masonry ; and is in
Masonic language, a worthy Sir Knight Templar.
He has never renounced nor ever formally seceded
from the Institution. Long after the murder of
Morgan he believed that no Masonic Lodge had in
any manner polluted itself with the guilt of his blood.
But as the editor of a respectable journal, he did
not sxi^ev his Masonic obligations to control his
moral duties. He disdained to justify, to connive
at, or to suppress, the commission of crimes. His
journal did give to the public, statements of the facts*
as they became authenticated, and this soon brought
him into collision with numbers of adhering Masons,
and with the Grand Lodge of the State of New
York. Then after a sharp altercation and bitter
reproaches for his admission into the columns of his

104

newspaper of Truth against Masonic murder ; and
after an ineffectual struggle to save the Grand Lodge
from the turpitude of an appropriation of money for
the benefit of the Western sufferers, he withdrew ;
and says he has never set his foot in a lodge-room
from that day.

; Col. Stone, I have said, is the best of witnesses
/ against Masonry, for he is an upright, intelligent,
\ and most unwillins[ witness. He testifies under the
shackles of all his Masonic obligations, and with the
knowledge that he is incurring the vindictive and
unforgiving resentment of the Craft. This is the
destiny of every non-adhering Mason, and it places
him in a position of no trifling or inconsiderable
peril. His testimony confirms, far beyond any an-
ticipation that I had formed, the extent to which the
lodges, chapters and encampments of the State of
New York are implicated in the Morgan-murder
crimes. It demonstrates beyond all possibility of
reply, not only that the nine crimes specified^in my
letters to Edward IngersoU, have been committed,
but that lodges, chapters and encampments have
• been accessory to every one of them, before or after
the fact. It proves also that the crimes committed
were more numerous than my specifications, and
that several others should be added to the list.
As you have Stone's book, I refer you to the letters
from twenty-one to twenty-five inclusive, and to

106

letter forty-eight, and will ask at your leisure for
your thoughts on the facts there disclosed.

With a view to the ultimate object of Anti-
masonry, the abolition of Freemasonry in these
United States^ it appears to me to be an important
point gained, if we produce on the public mind a
full conviction that those crimes have been com-
mitted, and that Masonry is responsible for them.

The honest adhering Masons turn away their
eyes from the facts, and urge the people to do the
same. The reason of this is that they cannot look
at the facts, and defend the institution ; but they
give thereby an immense advantage in the contro-
versy to their adversaries. For as argument must
be founded upon facts, he who has most perfect
possession of facts, must have the firmest foundation
for argument.

But after establishing the facts, first of the crimes
committed, and secondly of the participation of
many organized Masonic bodies in them, there is
another point of view, to which it seems to me
advisable to call the attention of the public to
induce them to look at the institution a priori^ to
examine and analyze it, as it is in its nature. In a
conversation with Col. Stone, after he had proposed
to address the letters to me, but before he had
begun the work, he was pleading, as be does in his
book, for the institution as he had known and

14

106

shared in it, and denied that be had ever taken the
oath with the words " murder and treason not ex-
cepted.^^ I said to him that the first step of Mason-
ry was a stumbling block to me. That the Entered
Apprentice's oath was vicious, and infected the
whole Institution. He has stated this observation
of mine in his book, in terms I think rather stronger
than those that I used. I have therefore written
him two letters, with a full development of the sen-
timent which I did express to him, and of the
reasons upon which it is founded. I have not writ-
ten them for the purpose of present publication ;
and I enclose them to you, before transmitting
them to him, and will be grateful to you for any
remarks that may occur to you upon the perusal of
them ; after which I will ask you to return them to
me. You will perceive that a concentration of
legal, religious and moral objection against the very
first act of initiation to Masonry, is in truth laying
the corner stone to the edifice of Antimasonry.
This part of the system seems to me not to have
been sufficiently canvassed. The adhering and
seceding Masons have been disputing about sin-
gle items in the Master Mason's, Royal Arch, and
Templar's obligations, which are differently admin-
istered in different Lodges, Chapters and Encamp*
ments ; while the vital questbn seems to me to be
in the Entered Apprentice's oath, obligation and

107

penalty. The chemist who detects arsenic in a
cup of coffee, may inquire, for curiosity, whether it
was mingled up with the powder of the berry, or
poured into the boiling kettle ; a motive of more
intense interest to those who repair with the pitcher
to the fountain, should be, to examine whether the
poison has not been deposited there.

You will estimate the confidence which I repose
in your candor as well as in your judgment, when I
add, that in submitting the enclosed letters to your
examination, I have not forgotten that you, like
Washington and Warren, had once taken the
Entered Apprentice's oath yourself.

Acccept the assurance of

my respect and affection,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO BENJAMIN COWELL, ESQ., PROVIDENCE, R. I.
Washin^n, 28 November, 1832.

Sir, — ^Your letter of the 22d instant, enclosing
your address before the Antimasonic convention,
holden at Providence on the 2d instant, proposes a
question of considerable difficulty — namely, by what-
means the institution of Freemasonry, with all its
exceptionable properties, may be put down-

I answer, by the voluntary dissolution of the so- ^^^

108

ciety, or by its extinction by the forbearance of
others to contract its obligations.

I have hoped that the virtuous and intelligent
members of the order, upon finding that all their
secrets have been revealed and made public ; upon
perceiving the numerous atrocious crimes connected
with the murder of Morgan, and to which their
oaths, obligations and penalties have given rise ; and
upon discovering the general obloquy into which the
institution was gradually sinking, would frankly
have abandoned it, of their own accord. Thb ex-
pectation has not been fully realized. But great
numbers of Masons have ceased to frequent the
lodges — numbers of lodges and chapters have suf-
fered their charters to expire ; and I believe the
instances are now few in which they swear a man
upon the penalty of having his throat cut from ear
to ear, to keep secret from every human being, what
every human being who will read the books of David
Bernard and Avery Allyn, knows as well as the
brightest Masons of the land — still, the majority of
Masons do adhere to the craft, and refuse to give
up their idol. The only way to deal with them is,
to bring to bear upon them public opinion; an^that
mode of treatment has been pursued with regard to
the disease, with considerable and encouraging
success.

I concur with you in the opinion that the admin-

109

istration of Masonic oaths, obligations and penalties
ought to be prohibited by statutes of the State legis-
latures, with penalues annexed to them, not of cut^
ting throats from ear to ear, nor of cutting the body
in two by the middle, nor of opening the left breast
and tearing out the heart and vitals, nor of smiting
off the skull to serve as a cup for the fifth libation ;
but with good, wholesome penalties of fine and im-
prisonment, adequate to their purpose of deterring
every Master, Grand Master, Grand King, or other
dignitary of the sublime and ineffable degrees, from
ever more polluting his lips with the execrable for-
mularies, which have at length been dragged into
light. Most cordially would I, were I a member of
any State legislature in the Union, give my voice
and vote for the enactment of such monitory statutes. ^
But this cannot be effected, so long as Masonry con-
trols the majorities in the State legislatures ; that is,
so long as the people continue to elect, as members
of the State legislatures, adhering Freemasons — or
men who are neither Masons nor Antimasons ;^r9
what you call moral Antimasons ; men who disap-
prove Masonry, but are afraid of incurring Masonic
vengeance, by raising a finger or uttering a word
against It — men whose virtue consists in neutrality
between right and wrong ; and who are willing to
believe that to refuse their votes to a man, because
he is an adhering Freemason, is persecution. So

no

long as the people continue to constitute majorities
of their State legislatures of such men as these, so
long will it be idle to expect any statutory enactment
against Masonic oaths, obligations and penalties.

It is, therefore, the duty of pure and disinterested
Antimasonry to operate, as well as it canTupon pub-
lic opinion ; and one of the most effective modes of
thus operating is the ballot box. It is just and pro-
per, that every individual, honestly believing that
the Masonic institution is an enormous nuisance in
the community, which, if not voluntarily relinquished,
ought to be broken down by the arm of the law,
should resolve that he will vote for individuals, as
members of the State legislatures, entertaining, upon
this subject, the same opinions as himself, and for
none other. If this resolution be just and proper for
each individual separately, it is equally so for as
many individuals collectively as can agree upon the
principle. / Far from being obnoxious to the charge
of persecution, it is, perhaps, the mildest of all pos-
sible forms of operating upon public opinion — by
public opinion itself It is thus that the Antimasons
J have acted ; first in the State of New York, where
the Morgan-murder has fastened upon the hand of
Masonry a spot of blood, like that which the dream
of Macbeth's wife paints upon hers, and which all
the perfumes of Arabia can never sweeten ; and
subsequently in other States, including that of Rhode

Ill

Island. Thus far, the principle of political Anti-
masonry has ray hearty approbation; and in the
diversity of opinion which still unhappily prevails
on this question, it is a satisfaction to me that the
dictate of my judgment coincides with that of a
large majority of the inhabitants of my native town,
my friends and neighbors, and of a highly respectable
portion, if not a majority, of the constituents whom
I have the honor of representing in the Congress of
the United States.

With regard to the political course of the Anti-
masons in Rhode Island, I am not a competent
judge. To the cause of Antimasonry, I consider the
legislative investigation of the last winter as having
essentially contributed. It has substantially settled
the question what the oaths^ obligations and penalties
of Freemasonry are. It has cut short all quibbling
equivocation, and attempts to blast the credit of
Avery Allyn and David Bernard. It has given us
those oaths, obligations and penalties in their naked
deformity. It has dragged the struggling savage
into day, and has shown us the last writhings of his
Protean form, in the impudent pretension that the
death of a traitor, in Masonic language, means the
death of a martyr. To the conclusions of the ma-
jority of the committee of investigation — namely,
that it is the indispensable duty of the Masons to
dissolve their fraternity, I respond, Amen and amen ;

112

though, when I read their report, and observe the
process by which they reach them, I cannot forbear
an exclamation of astonishment at the novel process
of induction, by which their conclusion slaps the
face of all their premises.

I hope and trust that the Freemasons of Rhode
Island will ultimately follow the advice of the com-
mittee of investigation, which so magnanimously
waived the legislative right of exacting testimony
to their secrets, and thus suffered the law of the
land to cower before the law of Masonic secrecy.
I thank the committee for having peremptorily
exacted the real oaths, obligations and penalties, as
taken and administered in Rhode Island, and con-
sider the result as having settled, in the mind of
every reasonable and independent man, their nature
and their character.

Respectfully, Sir,*

Your servant and fellow-citizen,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO JAMES MOREHEAD, ESQ., MERCER, PENN.

Washington, 23 December, 1833.

Sir, — Mr. Banks, the worthy representative of
your district, delivered to me your friendly letter of
the 26th of last month. I have, since the com-

113

mencement of the session of Congress, regularly
received the numbers of the Mercer Luminary, and
have observed with pleasure the zeal and assiduity
vi^ith which it disseminates the light of Antima-
sonry. To that cause I am devoted, because I
believe it to be the cause of pure morals and of
truth. Until the murder of Morgan, I had very"^
little knowledge of the institution of Freemasonry,
except as an occasional witness of its childish
pageantry, and the mock solemnity of its proces-
sions. These I believed to be harmless, and I gave ^
willing credit to their boastful professions of benev-
olence and charity. Very soon after the Morgan
catastrophe, however, the Masonic obligations were
disclosed to me in the escape of Col. William King,
from the pursuit of justice, in the territory of
Arkansas. I saw their operation, without being
able to punish the offender or even judicially to
authenticate the offence. King escaped by the
connivance of Masonic obligations paramount to the
laws of the land. He re-appeared afterwards upon
the theatre of his guilt ; and as you know, died
suddenly, on the disclosing of facts which he had
flattered himself were hidden from every person
under the canopy of heaven, without the pale of
Masonic oaths and penalties. Other evidences of
the practical effect of Masonic obligations soon
revealed themselves to me in the forms of secret

16

114

slander and perjury. But of the multitude of
atrocious crimes committed first in the conspiracy
which terminated in the murder of Morgan, and for
five years afterwards in baffling and defeating the
laws of the State in their efforts to bring tha mur*
derers to justice, I had a very imperfect idea till the
publication of Col. Stone's book.

There remained yet, not any reasonable doubt,
but some deficiency of evidence, with regard to the
essential, inherent, and indelible viciousness of the
Masonic obligations, in the solemn protestations of
the adhering Masons, that those obligations were
falsely represented in the books of Bernard and
Avery Allyn ; in the bold asseverations that no
such oaths, obligations and penalties existed ; and in
reiterated declarations, couched in delusive general-
ities, that they had never taken any oath or obliga-
tion inconsistent with their duties to their country
or their religion ; but always without disclosing
what were the terms of those which they had taken.
The investigation by a committee of the Legisla-
ture of Rhode Island, finally brought out the obligar
tions of ten degrees, as avowed to be practiced in
the Lodges, Chapters and Encampments of that
State. It exposed them in their hideous deformity;
and took from the defenders of Masonry their last
refuge of prevarication

It was to show them in their naked nature,

116

divested of all sophisticated explanations, and all
mental equivocations, that I wrote the four letters
on the Entered Apprentice's Oath, which you have
republished in the Luminary. I am happy that
they have met your approbation.

I am, with much respect,

Your friend and fellow-citizen,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMa

TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, ESQ.

Washington, 10 April, 183a

Sir, — In the National Intelligencer of the 22d of
April, 1830, there appears an address, there said to
have been delivered by you, to the General Royal
Arch Chapter of the United States, upon your in-
stallation to the high Masonic ofiicial dignity of
their General Grand High Priest.

In that address, after a feeling and elegant
acknowledgment of the grateful emotions which you
experienced on being apprized of the unexpected
and unsolicited distinction which had been conferred
upon you ,by your election to that office, and a pa-
thetic allusion to that period of life when all worldly
honors fade into the " sear and yellow leaf," you
assign as your reason for accepting the dignity and
the charge of presiding over an association in whose

116

labors you had " for many years retired from any
participation," that your refusal might have been
" ascribed to an unmanly fear of encountering the
clamor raised against our instituiioTij [of Free-
masonry,] or to a consciousness, that the vile and
absurd accusations against it were well founded.
Either of these suspicious (you added) would have
injured not my character only, but that of the
whole fraternity."

You further assigned an additional motive for
overcoming the reluctance suggested by the con-
sciousness that your long retirement had rendered
you less fit to fill the station than many others,
equally well qualified in other respects; and this
motive was your confidence in the Masonic skill
and excellent character of the worthy companion
who was, at the same solemnity, installed with you
as your Deputy General Grand High Priest.

After these ceremonial preliminaries, you proceed
as follows : ^^ Companions and Brethren ! For the
first time in the history of our country, persecution
has raised itself against our honorable fraternity.
It does not, indeed, as in other countries, incarce-
rate our bodies, strain them on the whciel, or con-
sume them in the flames of the Inquisition ; but its
attacks are, to an honorable mind, as unjustifiable.
It assails our reputation with the blackest calum-
nies; strives, by the most absurd inventions, to

117

deprive us of the confidence of our fellow-citizens ;
belies the principles of our order, and represents us
as bound to each other bj obligations subversive
of civil order, and hostile to religion."

Mr. Livingston, — In moulding this personified
image of persecution, did it never occur to you that
the foul and midnight hag, who justly bears that
name, is never to herself more deliciously occupied
than in charging persecution upon others? In those
Holy Scriptures, which it is your official duty to
read and expound to your companions and brethren
of the Royal Arch, it is related, that when your
predecessor in the high priesthood, Ananias, com-
manded that Paul should be smitten on the mouth,
the apostle of the gentiles turned upon him and
said, '' God shall smite thee, thou whited wall ; for
sittest thou to judge me after the law, and com-
mandest me to be smitten, contrary to the law ? "
I will not imitate this exclamation of Paul, for which
he himself apologized, when informed that it was
the high priest to whom he spoke — but I will ask
you, sir, to reconsider this charge of persecution,
imputed by you, in the face of the world, not indeed
to any individual by name, but to a numerous and
respectable class of your fellow-citizens in nine or
ten States of the Union — to all that class of citizens
known in the community by the denomination of
Antimasons. I am one of them myself. As respects

118

myself I know, as regards the whole party I firmly
believe, that in the above passage of your address,
you did them great injustice. In charging them
with calumny, you calumniated them yourself. In
accusing them of persecution, you are yourself the
persecutor.

I will not say that on your part this persecution
and calumny were wilful. You had for many years
retired from any participation in the labors of the
craft. If this fact is not very pregnant of evidence,
that, in your estimation, the labors of the craft were,
when you participated in them, of a high order of
public usefulness or private beneficence, it excul-
pates you at least from all participation in labors of
evil. You did not know what new labors had, most
especially in your own native State of New York,
and extensively elsewhere, been engrafted upon the
old stock. You did not know the additions which
had been, in many lodges and chapters, made to the
whole graduation of your oaths. The tree had not
borne all its fruits. The Morgan tragedy had been
enacted, and more than three years of impunity had,
in evasion or defiance of the laws of nature, of jus-
tice, and of the land, sheltered the guilt of its per-
petrators; but you did not know, nor was there
mortal out of the pale of your penalties who did
know, the catalogue of Masonic crimes which bad
been committed in affiliated connection with that

119

Masonic murder — you know them not to this day.
Multitudes of them are, and will ever remain, se-
creted under the seal of the fifth libation, and under
the obligation to conceal from every person under
the canopy of heaven, the secrets of a wortht
brother — murder and treason not excepted, or ex-
cepted at the option of the swearer. More than a
year after your address was delivered, the Grand
Lodge of Rhode Island published a defence of
Masonry against those same charges, which they,
like you, pronounced persecutions and calumnies.
Yet, even then, they said that whether Morgan had
been murdered or not, they could not tell— -^/br they
knew nothing about it. They knew nothing about
it! — They knew nothing about the facts, proved
in the judicial tribunals of New York, not only by
clouds of witnesses, but by the confessions and pleas
of guilty of several among the conspirators them-
selves. The Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, one
and all, knew nothing about all this, and yet they
published a defence of Masobry, and pronounced
persecution and calumny, the denunciations of vir-
tuous indignation against those very judicially
authenticated facts, about which they declared that
they knew nothing.

Sir, your address to your Royal Arch Companions
had more of candor or more of discretion. You
advised them that calumnies so absurd as those

120

uttered against you (the Masons) were best met by
dignified silence ! And yet you did not meet them
by dignified silence ; you pronounced them from
your exalted seat of General Grand High Priest of
the order, black and absurd calumnies, and you
attributed them all to persecution.

But if I am bound to acknowledge the candor
and discretion of your advice to your brethren to
meet the charges against their Institution with
dignified silence, I cannot offer an equal tribute of '
commendation to your consistency, when after all
your bitter complaints of calumny and persecution,
you urge them to " be just, and reflect how much
cause for excitement has been given, by the out-
rageous abduction of a citizen dragged from his
family and friends, in the midst of a populous State,
followed up, most probably, by the perpetration of a
most atrocious murder."

You then remind them that

'^ It was natural, from all the circumstances of
this most extraordinary and savage act, to believe
that it was committed by Masons."

Sir, was it not committed by Masons ?

<Mt was in human nature, unenlightened and
prejudiced human nature, to impute the cause of
the ofience to some secret tenet of the fraternity,
and to involve them in the criminality of their guilty
members."

121

Why the words unenlightened and prejudiced?
Was not some secret tenet of the fraternity the
cause of the offence ? That tenet of the fraternity,
secret at the time of the murder of Morgan, is
secret now no longer. For the mere intention to
reveal it, Morgan paid the penalty of his Entered
Apprentice's oath — his book revealed it after his
death. Its revelation was authenticated on the 4th
of July, 1828, by the testimony, not of unenlight-
ened and prejudiced human nature, but of the Le
Roy Convention of seceding Masons — men who
themselves had taken these oaths, and declared
themselves subject to the penalties which had been
inflicted by Masonic hands upon Morgan.

^^ It was natural that ambitious men should keep
up the excitement, and direct it against political
adversaries for their own elevation."

Perhaps it was. You, Mr. Livingston, are versed
in the ways of ambition and of ambitious men.
You know their propensity to keep up excitements,
and to direct them against political adversaries for
their own elevation. You must know, you cannot
but know, that Masonry has been used by ambi-
tious men for the same purposes. You must know
that in many of the New York lodges, the promise
to promote a brother's political advancement, was
one of the recent additions to the Masonic obliga-
tions. You may, and ought to know, that wherever

16

122

the spirit of Antimasonrj has arisen, one of the first
discoveries made by it has been, that wherever a
lodge or chapter has existed, at least three-fourths
of all the elective offices in the place were held bj
worthy brethren and companions of the craft,
chosen by men, multitudes of whom knew not
themselves the influence under which their votes
were cast. You know, too, that the charge of
ambitious and selfish motives is one of the most
vulgar, and most hacknied imputations of all ambi-
tious rivals and competitors against one another.
In condescending to use it yourself against the
An ti masons, you certainly gave no additional dignity
to it ; — and as a defence of the Institution against
Antimasonry, you might with advantage to yourself
have remembered your advice to your brethren, and
preferred to such a shield, the armor of dignified
silence. *

^^ And it was quite natural that men should be
found simple enough not to see through their views,
credulous enough to believe their absurd tales, or
sufficiently unprincipled to propagate them, know-
ing them to be false."

This again may be true. Of simple, of cred-
ulous, and of unprincipled men, there are always
numbers in every community, and they are the nat-
ural instruments of politicians of mdre ambition
than principle. But, in this respect, as in many

123

others, Antimasonrj is and has been more sinned
against than sinning. Simple and credulous men
have, for example, been told by the Genera] Grand
High Priest of the General Royal Arch Chapter of
the United States, that the charges against the
Masonic institution, of having had some secret tenet,
which was the cause of the murder of Morgan,
were black and absurd calumnies, invented by per-
secution, and which none but fools and cullies could
believe, and none but knaves would propagate.
Simple and credulous men may believe these asser-
tions of the General Grand High Priest, because
they are made by him, and because his character
gives them the weight of authority. To simple
and credulous men, the highest of all evidence is
the authority of great names, and accordingly your
own most plausible answer to the Antimasonic
charges against your institution, is an appeal to the
great and good men who have belonged and still
belong to it

But, sir, this is not sound reasoning to influence
the minds of other than simple and credulous men.
The question, permit me to say, upon the issue
which I am about to take with you, is not who —
but WHAT — not who have bound themselves by the
Masonic oaths, obligations, and penalties ; but ivhat
these oaths, obligations and penalties are. fVhai is
their nature ? and what have been their fruits ?

124

Now, sir, I do aver, that "the cause of the
offence" — that is, of the murder of William Mor-
gan, and of a multitude of other crimes indissolublj
connected with it, was a secret tenet of the frater-
nity— secret then, but no longer secret now. It
consisted in the obligation and penalty of the
Entered Apprentice's oath. It was the secret tenet
of initiation to the Masonic institution.

This, sir, is the issu€ which I, an Antiroason,
tender to you, the General Grand High Priest of
the General Royal Arch Chapter of the United
States. I call upon you, sir, in that capacity, to
sustain the charge of persecution and calumny,
made by you in your address to your brethren and
companions, upon your installation, against the
whole body of Antimasons in the United States,
and to sustain the institution over which you pre-
side, against the charges which you pronounce per-
secuting and calumnious.

But this, sir, is not my whole, or my ultimate
purpose. I do conscientiously and sincerely believe,
that the order of Freemasonry, if not the greatest,
is one of the greatest moral and political evils,
under which this Union is now laboring. I further
believe that the primary and efficient cause of all
this evil, is that same rite of initiation ; for as all
the oaths, obligations and penalties of the subse-
quent degrees are but variations, expansions and

125

aggravations of that primitive vice, let that be once
abolished, and all the rest must fall with it ; knock
away the underpinning, and the whole scaffolding
must come to the ground.

With this address, I have the honor of submitting
to you a pamphlet containing four letters on the
Entered Apprenticed oath. You will perceive, sir,
that they arraign that act of initiation upon five
distinct charges — as contrary to the laws of religion,
to the laws of morality, to the laws of the land.

Those letters have been now more than six months
published. Their existence has not been noticed
by any of the newspapers of the country under
Masonic influence ; but they have been very exten-
sively circulated in pamphlets, and numerous edi-
tions of them have been issued in several of the
States of the Union. They have of course attract-
ed much of that benevolence and charity, in the
construction of motives, for which the Masonic
order is so conspicuous, upon the head of their
author; — but no attempt has to my knowledge been
made to answer them. They were first published
in the Commercial Advertiser of New York, and
addressed to its editor, Col. William L. Stone,
known to you as a distinguished companion of your
order, in the degree of a Knight Templar.

I have expected that some show of defence
against the charges in those letters would have been

126

made. The charges are grave — they are specific —
they are made under the responsibility of my name.
And now, sir, as no individual brother or companion
of the craft has been willing to undertake its
defence, I call upon you, as the General Grand
High Priest of the order in these United States, to
undertake it. I call upon you the more freely,
because, if the charges are true, there is a debt of
justice and of reparation due from you to all the
Antimasons of the United States. The charges
are in part the same with those which you have
pronounced absurd, calumnious, and persecuting.
If, upon examination, you find them true, I expect
from your candor an acknowledgment of your
error ; from your magnanimity, a retractation of
your charges against the Antimasons.

I expect more. If, upon a fair examination of
these charges against the Entered Apprentice's Oathj
Obligation and Penalty^ you should find yourself
unable to defend them before the tribunal of public
opinion — if you should, by the natural rectitude and
intelligence of your enlightened and unprejudiced
mind, come to the conclusion that the first initiatory
rite of Freemasonry is in its own nature vicious,
immoral, and unlawful — that no mental reservation
can excuse it — that no explanation can change its
nature — that no plea of nullity can purify the attain-
der of its bloody purport — then, sir, I expect that.

127

as the General Grand High Priest of the order, you
will immediately advise its abolition, or at least
recommend that it should never more be adminis-
tered. I ask not merely of the Grand High Priest
of Masonry, but of the profound and eloquent and
humane legislator of the criminal code for Louisiana ;
I ask of him the abolition forever of that brutal pen-
alty of death by torture and mutilation, for the dis-
closure of senseless secrets — or rather, now, of
secrets proclaimed from every housetop of the land.
I say to you, in the language of the Roman orator,
in the sentiment of a heart congenial with your own,
*^ Hanc domesticam crudelitatem toUite ex civitate ;
banc pati nolite diutius in hac republica versari;
quae non modo id habet in se mali, quod civem
atrocissime sustulit, verum etiam hominibus lenissi-
mis ademit misericordiam. Nam cum omnibus horis
aliquid atrociter fieri videmus, aut audimus ; etiam
qui natura mitissimi sumus, assiduitate molestiarum
sensum omnem humanitaiis ex animis amittimus.^^*
I propose to address you upon this subject again.

♦ Banish from our borders, suffer no longer to prey upon our vitals,
this homt-hrtd cruelty among a people hitherto renowned for the mer-
ciful treatment of their foreign foes. Its greatest evil is not this most
atrocious murder of a free citizen, but that it extinguishes the very
sentiment of compassion in the mildest hearts. For when our eyes
and ears are hourly tortured with the sight and recital of deeds of
horror, they cease even in the tenderest natures to sympathise with
human calamity, and (he very sense of humamhf is MUeraUd from inir
mnds.

128

There is in the pamphlet herewith enclosed a fifth
letter addressed to Benjamin Cowell, of Rhode
Island, containing my opinion in favor, to a certain
extent, of what has been called political Antimasonrj.
As this principle has had, and must continue to have,
a powerful influence upon the policy and upon the
history of this Union, it will not be unworthy of
your consideration in your other capacity of Secre-
tary of State of these United States. I shall en-
deavor to prove to your conviction that your exhorta-
tion to the brethren and companions of your order
throughout the Union, but U7idtr your jurisdiction^
not to be tempted to the slightest interference in po-
litical parties^ has been and must be unavailing and
nugatory — that so long as you adhere to the admin-
istration of the Entered Apprentice's oath, your
lodges and chapters must and will be political cau-
cuses, and that Masonry will be the signal for politi-
cal proscription to one party, as Antimasonry has
been and will be to the other.

I am, very respectfully, sir.

Your fellow-citizen,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

129

TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, ESQ.

PhUadelphia, 15 April, 183a

Sir, — In a former letter, I stated to you the
motives and purposes by which I was induced to
address you, as the presiding officer of the Masonic
order in the United States, through the medium of
the press. They were,

1. To defend the Antimasons of the United
States from severe and unjust imputations and
charges against them, preferred by you in your
address to the brethren and companions of the so*
ciety upon your installation in your high Masonic
dignity.

2. To make, distinctly, specifically, and under
the responsibility of my name, the charge against
the institution of Freemasonry, which you in that
address had pronounced a vile and absurd calumny,
instigated by a spirit of persecution, unjustifiable as
arbitrary imprisonment or the tortures of the inqui-
sition ; namely, that ^^ the cause of the offence,"
that is, of the murder of William Morgan, and of a
multitude of other crimes, connected with it, was a
secret tenet of the Masonic fraternity ; consisting
in the Entered Apprentice's oath, obligation and
penalty — the first rite of initiation in the Masonic
order.

17

130

3. To transmit to you four letters upon that
Entered Apprentice's oath, obligation and penalty,
published by me in November last, and intended to
prove that this first rite of initiation to the order of
Freemasonry, is, — in its naked nature, divested of
mental reservation, stripped of the authority of
great names, and disarmed of the shield of fraud-
ulent explanation, — vicious, contrary to the laws of
God, to the laws of humanity, to the laws of the
land.

4. To call upon you, as the head and chief of the
whole Masonic brotherhood of the United States,
to sustain your charges against the Antimasons — to
vindicate the purity, the humanity, the lawfulness
of the Entered Apprentice's oath, obligation and
penalty — or to advise and recommend to the com-
panions and brethren under your jurisdiction, its

ABOLITION.

This last, sir, was my principal and ultimate
object in addressing you — the abolition of that dis-
graceful initiatory act, which constitutes the vital
essence of Freemasonry.

I intended and intend no disrespect to yoo.
Admiring your talents, concurring in many of your
political opinions, and believing that in the dis-
charge of your official duties in the service of the
one, confederated North American people, you have
at a critical moment of their union, contributed

131

much to its preservation, by dashing from their lips
the deadly but Circaean cup of nullification and
secession, my confidence in your character has been
strengthened. Giving you the credit of bold resist-
ance to dangerous political errors, and of intrepidity
in the honorable undertaking of redeeming others
from the same, I have been encouraged to hope
that you will discern the pure and well-deserved
honor which will assuredly await your name in after
ages, if you shall avail yourself of that summit of
Masonic dignity which you have attained, by pre-
vailing upon the whole association to discard forever
the use and administration of those horrible invo-
cations of the name of a merciful God, as the
witness to promises of secrecy to things no longer
secret to any one, under penalties of death in every >
variety of form which a fury could devise, or a
demon could consummate.

One of those oaths — that of the Royal Arch
Companion — it is your* special province, as the

* It appears from Allyn^s Ritual that it is not the High Priest, but
the Principal Sojourner of a Royal Arch Chapter, who administers the
oath and obligation to the Team of candidates whom he leads by their
halter to the altar. But the High Priest gravely declares to them that
an old chest which he receives, mth great swrprxBt, fh>m the Principal
Sojourner, is iht ark of the covenant of God, He takes out of this
chest an old book, which upon beginning to read, he iinds to be " the
book of the Law," long lost, but now found, and he solemnly declares
to the candidates, that " the world ta indebted to Masonry for the pres-
ervatum of this sacred volume.^^ How edifying must this solemnity be
to the ministers of the Gospel who take part in it!

132

Grand High Priest of the order, to administer to
every Most Excellent Master, who, not satisfied
with this superlative excellence, still pushes forward
in search of more light — it is the seventh of that
series of blasphemies, or of calls upon the name of
God in vain, by which the Masonic aspirant pur-
chases the floods of light which pour upon him
from every successive degree. It is in this degree
that you turn that scene of awful solemnity, the
calling of Moses by God himself in the burning
bush, into a theatrical representation, and actually
make your candidate take off his shoes, declaring
the place on which he stands to be holy ground.
This representation I know is emblematical, and is
explained by you to your candidate so to be. The
solemnities of admission to the Royal Arch are
deeply impressive, and therefore the more excep-
tionable by their mixture in the same ceremonies
with childish fables and gross impostures. You
commence with a fervent prayer to God — you open
the Royal Arch Chapter, and read to the three can-
didates for admission (for so many you must have)
a great part of the lS9th Psalm. You interrogate
them, and bid them travel three successive times ;
and on their return you read portions of the 141st,
142d and 143d Psalms. You then order them to
be conducted to the altar, and there you administer
to them the Royal Arch oath. This is the oath.

1S3

which, 10 many of the chapters of the State of
New York, pledges the candidate to conceal the
secrets of a Royal Arch Companion, communicated
to him as such — murder and treason not excepted.
It pledges him also to assist a brother companion to
extricate him from his difficulties, whether he be
right or wrong. In other chapters the engage-
ments are less onerous. They vary in almost every
chapter. In an authentic copy of the manuscripts
mentioned by Col. Stone in his Letters on Masonry
and Antimasonry, one of the promises of this
degree is to support, protect and defend a Royal
Arch Mason, even with the sword if necessity re-
quires. But in whatever form the oath is adminis-
tered, its promises, whether more or less compre-
hensive or exceptionable, are all made with invo-
cation of the name of God ; and all under no less
penalty than to have the swearer's skull smitten off,
and his brains exposed to the scorching heat of the
sun. This, sir, is the penalty under which you
require of the candidate for the Royal Arch degree
to swear, that he will keep all the secrets of the
order and of its companions and brethren, and that
he will perform the other obligations appertaining
to that degree. You deliberately pronounce, word
by word, causing the candidate to repeat them after
you, the words of this oath, promise and penalty,
closing with the adjuration, So help me God, and

134

keep me steadfast to this my oath of a Royal Arch
Mason. And before he can be qualified to take
upon himself this obligation, he must have had six
similar oaths administered to him, and have pledged
himself to them, so help him God, under no less
penalties than,

1. To have his throat cut across from ear to ear,
his tongue torn out by the roots and buried, (his
tongue or his body,) buried in the rough sands of
the sea, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in
twenty-four hours.

2. To have his left side cut open, his heart torn
out by the roots, and cast away to be devoured
by vultures.

3. To have his body severed in two by the midst,
his bowels burnt to ashes, and scattered to the
winds.

The three succeeding penalties are of the same
character, equally cruel and inhuman.

All these penalties William Morgan had incurred
by writing the secrets and mysteries of the craft for
publication. If it were possible to concentrate
upon one human being the torture of them all, the
agonies of that mortal would not be more prolonged
or more excruciating than was the punishment
inflicted upon William Morgan. He was seized by
Masonic ruflSans at noonday, hurried away from a
dependent wife and infant children, by a warrant

135

upon a false charge of larceny, taken out at thirty
miles distant from his abode — taken out upon the
day hallowed to the worship of God ; he was car-
ried into another county, and discharged as innocent
the moment he was brought to trial. Then forth-
with arrested again for a debt of two dollars,
imprisoned for two days, though he offered his coat
in payment of the debt ; finally discharged again in
the darkness of night, by an imposter under the
guise of friendship, and, immediately upon issuing
from prison, seized again, under cover of the night,
by concerted signals, between the man-stealers of the
lodge and of the chapter — gagged to stifle his cries
for aid, forced into a coach, and transported, by
changes of horses and carriages prepared at every
change beforehand for his reception, one hundred
and fifty miles, there lodged in solitary confinement,
within the walls of an old abandoned fortress, there
detained five days and nights, under perpetual
threats of instant death, subject to uninterrupted
indignity and abuse — denied the light of heaven in
his cell, denied the use of a Bible, for which he
earnestly entreated, and finally, at dead of night,
transported by four Royal Arch Companions of the
avenging craft, to the wide channel of the Niagara
river, and there sunk to the bottom of that river.
Nine days were occupied in the execution of this
Masonic sentence. At least three hundred worthy

136

brethren and companions of the order were engaged
as principals or accessories in the guilt of this
cluster of crimes — and thisj Mr. Livingston, is " the
offence," the " cause" of which I aver to be the
then secret tenet of the fraternity, the oath, obli-
gation and penalty of initiation to the mysteries of
the craft.

I attribute them all to the Entered Apprentice's
oath, because I consider that as the cause and
parent of all the oaths, obligations and penalties of
all the subsequent degrees. My ultimate object in
these addresses being to obtain, through your influ-
ence and recommendation, the voluntary relinquish-
ment by the fraternity, in this Union, of these oaths
and penalties, I have been desirous of narrowing
down the controversy to its simplest point. I ask
of you, and through you, 1 petition of the General
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, to
abolish the Royal Arch oath and penalty — to require
of all the chapters under your jurisdiction to cease
from administering that and all other oaths tainted
with the penalty of death, forever ; and this I trust
and believe will induce the lodges to follow the
example of the chapters, and abolish their oaths
and penalties too, forever.

And when I charge the Entered Apprentice's
oath as the cause of the offence — that is, of the
kidnapping and murder of William Morgan — I only

137

meet and repel yoar charge against the Antimasons,
as persecutors and calumniators of your fratern\jty,
because they impute that offence to that cause.
But this is not all the offence of which I impeach
the Masonic penalties as the cause. The abduction
and murder of Morgan are but two of a multitude
of crimes, connected with that series of transactions
of which they formed a part, all of which I impute
to the same cause. There were crimes committed
against Morgan before his abduction and murder —
crimes of equal atrocity, committed against his asso-
ciate Miller — crimes committed after the murder of
Morgan, to shield, and screen, and protect, and aid
and abet, its perpetrators — crimes committed by
Masonic sheriflfs in returning juries — crimes com-
mitted by Masonic witnesses, some in standing
obstinately mute, and others in refusing to give the
testimony required of them by the laws of the land
— crimes committed by Masonic jurors in returning
false, or in refusing to return true verdicts. All
these I charge to the same cause ; and not the least
among them is a false and calumnious imputation
upon the character and good name of your own
immediate predecessor, in the office of General
Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chap-
ter of the United States, and then Governor of the
State of New York — an imputation which embit-
tered the last days of his life. It must be known

18

138

to you that one of the principal conspirators against
Morgan gave out among bis associates, to stimulate
their faltering courage to the deed of horror, that
he had a letter from the General Grand High Priest,
declaring that the Morgan manuscripts must be
suppressed, even at the cost of blood ; that such a
letter, purporting to be from Governor Clinton, was
exhibited, and that he, the Governor of the State of
Nev^ York, eminent and distinguished as he had
long been, was reduced to the humiliating necessity
of directing that an action of slander should be
commenced to vindicate his character before a
judicial tribunal, where Masonic witnesses have
since been sentenced to imprisonment for refusing
to testify to the truth. To refute this calumny
upon Governor Clinton, was one of the honorable
motives of Colonel Stone, for the publication of his
letters upon Masonry and An ti masonry. He has in
my judgment done it effectually ; but he has admit-
ted and shown that it was a calumny strictly
Masonic — a natural and congenial deduction from
the same oaths, obligations and penalties which
sunk Morgan in the waters of the Niagara.

In the address to your companions and brethren,
at your installation, which has been the occasion of
these letters to you, it was said that it would be not
more unjust and absurd to impute to the Christian
religion all the crimes which have been committed

139

in its name, than it is to charge the institution of
Freemasonry with the outrages of a few misguided
and infatuated members of the craft. This argu-
ment is familiar to all the defenders of Freemasonry,
and has an appearance of plausibility; but it is
fallacious. All the crimes committed in the name
and under color of the Christian religion, have been
perpetrated under false or erroneous constructions
of its precepts. There is nothing in the Christian
religion to warrant them. But whenever and wher-
ever those false and erroneous constructions have
been detected and exposed, they have been ex-
ploded. This is precisely the object of the Anti-
masons at this time, with regard to the errors and
vices of the Masonic institution. They are to the
order of Freemasonry what the Protestant reform-
ers were to the Christian religion. Perhaps an
analogy still more accurate may present itself to
your mind between the letters of Blaise Pascal
upon the morals of the order of Jesuits, and those
which I have now the honor of addressing to you
upon the morals of Masonry. The tenets which in
the name of the Christian religion have drenched
the world in blood, were spurious ; they formed no
part of the religion itself. The tenets of the order
of Jesuits, detected and exposed by Pascal, were
not universally held by the members of that institu-
tion— they formed no part of the constitution of the

140

society, and were disclaimed by its brightest orna-
ments. The order of Jesuits was a religious com-
munity. The whole system of their establishment
was founded upon the precepts of Christ. They
read the Bible as assiduously, and with devotion as
profound and sincere, as animates the Grand High
Priest of the Royal Arch, upon the admission of a
triad of candidates to that Masonic degree. And
yet the order of Jesuits has been abolished by the
head of the Catholic church himself, for holding
tenets and adopting practices inconsistent with
good morals.

But the vices of the Masonic institution are not
false and erroneous constructions of precepts ill
understood and susceptible of different meanings.
They are vices inherent in the institution itself, and
not corruptions foisted upon it. Cruel and barba-
rous as was the penalty inflicted upon Morgan, it
was no more than he had at least seven times
sworn to endure for violation of his Masonic oaths.
His murderers, those of them who survive, are still
WORTHY brethren, and companions of the craft.
Not one of them has ever been expelled from lodge,
chapter or encampment. They have been, on the
contrary, cheered with the sympathies and relieved
from the funds of the Grand Lodge and Grand
Chapter of New York. You perceive then that
whatever analogy there may be between the crimes

141

committed by the corruptions of the Christian
religion, and those resulting from Masonry, the
inferences to be drawn from it all speak trumpet-
tongued for the abolition of the Masonic oaths and
penalties.

In concluding this letter, I am bound to make
my acknowledgments for a poetical parody of its
predecessor, which I have seen in the newspaper
called the Globe, and by which I see that you are
disposed to treat the subject with pleasantry.
Well, sir, so be it. The Globe is generally consid-
ered as your political organ. In that country
which it is said you are about to visit, you may,
perhaps, at your hours of leisure and recreation,
occasionally frequent the first dramatic theatre in
the world, and there be entertained with exhibitions,
not of Moses in the burning bush, but of some of
the masterpieces of the human mind, in the form
of comedies of Moli^re. You may chance to see,
among the rest, a personage upon the stage, speak-
ing to his servant, and about to give him an order,
when the servant interrupts him by the inquiry,
whether he is speaking to his coachman or to his
cook. A similar question occurs to me with regard
to your poet laureate. Is it one of your charioteers
of the department of state, or a scullion of the
kitchen ? In either event, I commend this epistle
to the inspiration of his muse — and as for you, sir,

142

when the time for seriousness shall return, and you
shall incline to justify yourself from the charge of
unjust accusation against multitudes of your fellow-
citizens, or to vindicate from still more serious
charges, the oaths, obligations and penalties, which
it is among your official Masonic functions to ad-
minister— when you shall return to the grave and
solemn and religious character of the General Grand
High Priest, I shall hope to hear from you, in verse
or prose, in the Globe or the Intelligencer, at your
option, but in your own person, and with the sig-
nature of your name.

I am, in the meantime, very

respectfully, your fellow-citizen,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, ESQ.

Qttincy, 1 May, 1833*

SiR)— -The Entered Apprentice's oath, obligation
and penalty, upon which I undertook to animadvert,
in the four letters to Col. William L. Stone, a copy
of which was transmitted to you, with the first of
these letters to yourself, was in the terms of that
obligation as furnished by the officers of the Grand
Lodge of Rhode Island themselves, to the commit-

143

tee of the legislature of that State^ appointed to
investigate the charges against the institution which
had been made since the murder of Morgan, and
which they and you pronounce calumnious. The
obligations themselves had never been authenticated
by the authority of adhering Masons, until they
were produced by the officers of the Grand Lodge
and Grand Chapter, at the peremptory requisition
of the legblative committee. They were generally
considered by Masons as constituting essential parts
of the mysteries of the craft, and included strictly
within the promise never to write, print, cut, carve,
paint, stain or engrave them. In the practice of
the chapters and lodges, the oaths are all adminis-
tered by rote, and pass by tradition alone. This
is of course the cause of the differences in the
phraseology of the oaths as administered by differ-
ent persons. It is one of the great inherent vices
of the institution. It affords constant opportunity
and frequent temptation to every chapter and lodge
to make additions to the promises pledged by the
recipient of each degree.

The manuscript obligations furnished by the
Grand Chapter and Grand Lodge of Rhode Island,
were drawn up and reduced to writing for the
occasion. The Grand Lodge had previously pub-
lished a defence of Masonry, stoutly denying that
there was any thing in the Masonic obligations

144

contrary to religion, morals, or the laws of the land;
but carefully abstaining from any statement of what
they were. They had used that notable device of
explaining the penalty of death for revealing the
secrets of the craft, or of any of its members, as
meaning only a promise to suffer death rather than
reveal them. They had expounded and explained
and denied the several parts and parcels of the
Masonic obligations, till they had made them all as
innocent as their lambskin aprons. They had es-
pecially denied, with abundance of indignation,
that they had ever administered or taken the oath
to conceal the secrets of a brother Mason — " mur-
der and treason not excepted." These words, or
others equivalent to them, are stated, in Elder Ber-
nard's Light on Masonry, and in Avery Allyn's
Ritual, to form a part of the Royal Arch obligation.
They are certified as such by the convention of
seceding Masons, held at Le Roy, on the 4th of
July, 1828, twenty-three of whom had taken this
oath; and they have been since attested by ad-
hering Masons, upon trials before judicial tribunals
in the State of New York. They are not in the
Royal Arch obligation reported by the Grand Chap-
ter of Rhode Island ; but in the Master Mason's
obligation, reported by the Grand Lodge, among
the promises of admission to that degree are the
fottowing words, — <<That I will keep a brother's

145

secrets as my own, when committed to me in
charge as such, murder and treason excepted.^'
This, of course, is a pledge of immunity, for all
other crimes, but it does except murder and treason.
So said the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island. Yet
even in that State, Nathan Whiting, an attorney
and counsellor at law, who had taken the degree in
the lodge at East Greenwich, and had been Master
of that Lodge, testified that in the Master's degree,
after ^' murder and treason excepted," the usual
form was to add "and that at mt option" —
and what the difference is between that, and " mur-
der and treason not excepted," I leave as a problem
in morals for Masonic casuists to solve.

In the seventh of Col. Stone's letters upon
Masonry, page 66, referring to the disagreement in
the phraseology of the obligations, as given in
different places, he makes mention of a manuscript
then in his possession, containing copies of the
obligations of the several degrees, as they were
given twenty years before in the lodge and chapter
of an eastern city — copied from the manuscript of
a distinguished gentleman who had been Master of
the Lodge and High Priest of the Chapter. The
forms, says Col. Stone, are the same that were
used in that city for a long series of years; and
when Royal Arch Masonry was introduced into
Rochester J in the State of New Yorky these forms^

19

146

from these identical papers, were then and there
introduced and adopted.

There is at this passage a reference to a note in
the Appendix, stating it to have been the original
intention of Col. Stone to insert all the obligations
contained in that manuscript, in his text; but that
he was compelled to suppress them from the unfore-
seen extent of his work. He observes, that neith-
er of the obligations in the first three degrees, in
those manuscripts, is more than half as long as
those disclosed by Morgan, and in common use.
He further adds that these manuscripts give a more
sensible and intelligible, and a less exceptionable
account of the seven degrees of Masonry, than any
other work he had seen ; and he concludes by
observing that when Morgan was at Rochester j these
papers were tliercj and already written to hi3 hands.

It is to be regretted that Col. Stone did not
adhere to his first intention of publishing these obli-
gations, or rather that he did not insert the whole
manuscript in his Appendix. I have obtained it
from him, and annex hereto the three obligations,
as there recorded, of the Entered Apprentice, the
Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason** It will be
found upon examination, that although truly repre-
sented by him as perhaps not more than half so

* The obligatioDB here refened to, wUl be found in the Appendix
to thiB volume*

147

long as the same obligations in Morgan^s and Ber-
nard's books, they lose nothing of pith and moment
by the retrenchment of words. They were the
forms used at Rochester, and no other Masonic
institution in the State was more deeply implicated
in the tragedy of Morgan's kidnapping and murder,
than that same chapter at Rochester. Now, in the
Entered Apprentice's oath of this manuscript, the
promise is expressly and explicitly to keep and con-
ceal the secrets of Masons as well as Masonry.
The penalty is the same as that reported by the
Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, but in the Lecture
to the candidate on his admission there is in the
manuscript an explanation of the meaning of the
penalty, which not only utterly falsifies the explana-
tion of the Rhode Island Masons, so strangely
accepted and countenanced by the majority report
of the legislative investigating committee, but proves
that the murderers of Morgan understood but too
weH the real character of the obligation.

In this Entered Apprentice's Lecture, the candi-
date, after going through the forms of admission, is
examined by the Master, upon interrogatories with
regard to the meaning of all the ceremonies through
which he has passed. Upon giving the account of
his admission at the door, the following, word for
word, are the questions put to him by the Master,
and his answers : —

Q. « What did you next hear ? "

149

A* ^^One from within, saj^ing with an audible
voice, Let him enter."

Q. " How did you enter ? "

A. " Upon the point of a sword, spear, or other
warlike instrument, presented to my naked left
breast, accompanied with this expression — Do you
feel?"

Q. " Your answer ? "

A. « I do."

Q. " What was next said ? "

A. " Let this be a prick to your conscience, a
shield to your faith, and instant death in case

YOU REVOLT."

Yes, sir, this is the explanation given to the
Entered Apprentice, at the time of his admission
to the degrees, of the penalty under which he binds
himself by his oath — this was the formula used in
Connecticut more than twenty-five years since, and
thence introduced into Rochester, in the State of
New York. Who shall say that the murderers of
Morgan misunderstood the import of the Entered
Apprentice's obligation ?

And in this same manuscript of the forms of
admission used at Rochester, the following, word
for word, are clauses of the Master Mason's obli-
gation : —

^< I furthermore promise and swear, that I will
attend a brother barefoot, if necessity requires, to
warn him of approaching danger; that on my

149

knees I will remember him in my prayers ; that I
will take him by the right hand and support him
with the left, in all his just and lawful undertakings ;
that I will keep his secrets as safely deposited in
my breast, as they are in his own, treason and miir*
der only excepted, and those at my oPTiOff; —
that I will obey all true signs, tokens and sum-
monses, sent me by the hand of a Master Mason,
or from the door of a just and regular Master
Mason's Lodge, if within the length of my cable*
tow."

This was the form of admission to the Master
Mason's degree, at Rochester, when the chapter at
Rochester decided that Morgan had incurred the
penalties of his obligations, and sent out their signs,
tokens and summonses accordingly.

These were the oaths which every Master Mason
admitted at the lodge in Rochester, had taken. All
this he had ^* most solemnly and sincerely promised
and sworn with a full and hearty resolution to per-
form the same without any evasion, equivocation or
mental reservation — under no less penalty than to
have his body cut across, his bowels taken out and
burnt to ashes, and those ashes scattered to the four
winds of heaven ; to have his body dissected into
four equal parts, and those parts hung on the cardi-
nal points of the compass^ there to hang and remain
as a terror to all those who shall presume to violate
the sacred obligation of a Master Mason."

150

Col. Stone, in his seventh letter, page 67, says,
that in his apprehension the words, '^ and they left
to my own election,^^ are an innovation, and that he
has not been accustomed to hear the obligation so
conferred. The words in his own manuscript are,
" and those at my option ; " fewer words, but bear-
ing the same meaning. They were no innovation
at Rochester.

The only words in this obligation which need any
explanation, are the words cable-towj and they are
always so explained as to give them a definite mean-
ing. The rest are all as explicit as language can
make them, and they are taken with a broad and
total disclaimer of all evasion, equivocation or men-
tal reservation. So they were taken at Rochester,
and so they are recorded in the old manuscript of
Col. Stone.

You are a classical scholar, sir, and you doubtless
remember the humorous remark of Cicero, in his
dialogue on the nature of the gods ; that he could
not conceive how one Roman Haruspex could look
another in the face without laughing. I find it
equally difficult to conceive how you, performing
the functions of a Master of a Lodge, as among the
duties of a Grand High Priest you may be required
to do — how you can look in the face of a man after
administering to him such an oath as this, without
shuddering. But we have not yet done with the
old manuscript of Col Stone.

161

After the ceremonies of admission to the degree
of Master Mason are completed, and the recipient
has been invested in his new dignity, he is conduct-
ed to the Master of the Lodge in the East, there to
hear from him the history of the degree. There,
sir, with equal regard for historical truth, and rev-
erence for the Holy Scriptures, you mingle up the
building of Solomon's Temple, as recorded in the
Bible, with the murder of Hiram AWfT by three
Tyrian Fellow Craft, Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum,
as preserved in the chronicles of Masonic mystery.
You relate them all as solemn truth of equal authen-
ticity, and in the manuscript now before me, the
story goes that after the murder of Hiram Abiff
was consummated, King Solomon was informed of
the conspiracy and ordered the roll to be called,
when the three ruffians were missing. Search
^* was made after them, and they were found by
their dolorous moans, in a cave. O, said Jubela,
that my throat had been cut across, &c. [repeating
the whole penalty of the Entered Apprentice's obli-
gation] before I had been accessory to the death of
so good a Master. O, said Jubelo, tt^t my heart
had been torn out, &c. [repeating the whole penalty
of the Fellow Craft's obligation] before I had been
accessory to the death of our Master. O, said Ju-
belum, that my body were cut across, my bowels
taken out and burnt to ashes, &c. [repeating the

152

whole penalty of the Master Mason's obligation] be-
fore I had been the death of our Master Hiram Abiff.
Thej were then taken, and sent to Hiram, king of
Tyre, who executed on them the several sentences
they had invoked upon themselves," which have

EVER SINCE REMAINED '* THE STANDING PENALTIES
IN THE THREE FIRST DEGREES IN MaSONRT."

This, sir, is the history of the Master Mason's
degree, which was delivered by the Master of the
Lodge at Rochester to every individual received as
a Master Mason. This was the explanation given
to him of the obligation assumed by him, immedi-
ately after the administration of the oath. This is
in substance the explanation which you, the reporter
of a criminal code to the legislature of Louisiana,
must give to every Master Mason whom you receive,
of the penalty of the oath which you administer to
him in the name of the ever living God — without
evasion — ^without equivocation — without mental res-
ervation.

And will you say, sir, as the Grand Lodge of
Rhode Island have said, that these penalties mean
no more thaa that the swearer, who invokes them
upon himself, will rather die like Hiram AbifT, than
reveal the secrets of Masonry ? Is it Hiram Abiff
in this story who pays the penalty of violated vows?
Is it Hiram Abiff who invokes these penalties upon
himself? The Entered Apprentice, the Fellow

153

Crafty and the Master Mason, invoke upon them-
selves the penalties of their respective degrees.
The Entered Apprentice is told that he enters the
lodge on the point of a naked sword pricking his
breast to remind him of instant death in case of
REVOLT ; and the Master Mason is told that the
penalties executed upon Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum,
have ever since remained the standing penalties in
the three first degrees of Masonry.

And now, sir, what are we to think of High
Priests, and Royal Arch Chapters, and Grand Mas-
ters, and Grand Lodges, who, after taking and
administering in secret these oaths, with these pen-
alties, for a long series of years, when their real
character has been proclaimed by the voice of mid-
night murder from the waters of Niagara in tones to
which the thunders of her cataract are but as a
whisper — ^when their unequivocal import has been
divulged, to the amazement and disgust and horror
of all pure, unsophisticated minds ; what are we to
think of High Priests, and Grand Kings, and most
illustrious Knights of the Cross, who face it out in
defiance of the common sense and common feeling
of mankind, that there is nothing in these oaths and
penalties inconsistent with the duties of those who
take and administer them to their country or their
God ? The manuscript from which I now give to the
world the three obligations of the Entered Appren-

20

154

tice, of the Fellow Craft, and of the Master Mason,
IS upon the testimony of Col. Stone, a Knight Tem-
plar and a man of unimpeached integrity, Masonry
in its most mitigated and least exceptionable form —
it was the Masonry of Connecticut more than twen-
ty-five years since and for many years before — it
was the Masonry of Rochester at the time of the
murder of Morgan.

I have yet more to say to you, sir, on this subject,
nor shall I be discouraged from continuing to address
you upon it by your observance of a <* dignified
silence.^' If my letters are not read by you, there
are those by whom they will be read, I trust, not
without effect. If the presses under your jurisdic-
tion, Masonic or political, refuse their columns to
the discussion of Masonic morals, when the Grand
High Priest of Masonry is the Secretary of State of
the Union, it may serve to illustrate the subserviency
of the periodical press to Masonry — but your address
to your companions and brethren at your installation
as the Grand High Priest of the Royal Arch of this
Union, is not the perishable efiliision of a day. It is
a state paper for history, and for biography — for the
present age and for the next — it shall not be lost to
posterity — it shall stand as a beacon to future time
•—the admiration, or at least the wonder of other
generations.

JOHN atJINCY ADAM&

155

TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, ESQ.

Quincy, 23 May, 1833.

Sir, — The position which I have undertaken to
prove, beyond all possibility of rational denial, is,
that the ^^ cause of the offence," that is, of the mur-
der of* William Morgan, and of a multitude of other
crimes associated with and subsequent to that act,
was the oath of initiation to the Masonic institution,
with its appended penalty.

Had Morgan never taken any other oath than that
of the Entered Apprentice, he would, after writing
his Illustrations of Masonry, have been liable to the
penalty which he suffered — even before they should
be published. Like Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum, he
had invoked the penalty upon himself; he suffered
nothing more than the penalty which he had been
assured had been executed upon them; nothing
more than what he had been warned had been the
standing penalties of Freemasonry from the time of
the building of Solomon's Temple.

All the obligations are assumed, with invocation
of the penalty of deatk, upon him who takes the oath
of admission to each of the several degrees ; pro-
fiounced with his own lips, and with a solemn ap-
peal to God, disclaiming all evasion, all equivocation,
all mental reservation*

156

Such is the law of Masonry.

Shall I cite to you, sir, from your able and elo-
quent report to the legislature of Louisiana, the
powerful argument against the infliction of death
upon any criminal for the commission of any crime
whatsoever? The whole argument is well wor-
thy to be read and studied, by every person con-
versant with the administration or enactment of
criminal law, and of the deep consideration, espe-
cially of the brethren and companions of the craft.
But the introduction to it is so peculiarly appropriate
to the purpose of these addresses to you, that I take
the liberty of presenting it to you in your own
words.

^^ I approached the inquiry into the nature and
effect of this punishment (of death) with the awe
becoming a man who felt most deeply his liability to
err, and the necessity of forming a correct opinion
on a point so interesting to the justice of the coun-
try, the life of its citizens, and the character of its
laws. I strove to clear my understanding from all
prejudices which education or early impressions
might have created, and to produce a frame of mind
fitted for the investigation of truth and the impartial
examination of the arguments on this great question.
For this purpose I not only consulted such writers
on the subject as were within my reach, but endeav-
ored to procure a knowledge of the practical effect

167

of this punishment on different crimes in the several
countries where it is inflicted/ In niy situation,
however, I could draw but a limited advantage from
either of these sources ; very few books on penal
law, even those most commonly referred to, are to be
found in the scanty collections of this place, and my
failure in procuring information from the other
States, is more to be regretted on this than any other
topic on which it was requested. With these inad-
equate means, but after the best use that my facul-
ties would enable me to make of them ; after long
reflection, and not until I had canvassed e^ery argu-
ment that could suggest itself to my mind, I came
to the conclusion, that the punishment of death

SHOULD F^ND NO PLACE IN THE CODE WHICH YOU
HAVE DIRECTED ME TO PRESENT."

Now, sir, I ask of you, as the Grand High Priest
of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the
United States, to make to the chapters and lodges,
to the companions and brethren under your juris-
diction, that same recommendation to abolish the
penalty of death, which with such deep and affect-
ing solemnity you did make, in reporting a code of
criminal law, to the legislature of Louisiana. The
argument of which 1 have here given only the intro-
ductory paragraph embraces a very large portion,
nearly one half, of your report on the criminal code.
In the system reported with it, murder, and joining

158

an iusurrection of slaves, are made punishable with
hard labor for life. At the close of this letter, I an^
nex several other extracts,* as well from the report,
as from the preamble to the penal code reported
with it, indicative not only of your deliberate and
solemn opinions, adverse to the punishment of death
in all cases whatsoever, but of the abhorrence which
you must feel at heart, for those brutal mutilations
of the body, which constitute the penalties of every
Masonic obligation.

It is not, Mr. Livingston, for the poor purpose of
bringing against you a charge of inconsistency
before the tribunal of public opinion, that I address
these letters to you, and call earnestly upon you to
make this recommendation. I would, if possible,
speak to your heart. I would say, you have re-
commended, you have urged by appeals to the best
feelings of our nature, to the supreme legislative
authority of your State, the total abolition of the
penalty of death — the reformatbn of every thing
cruel, indecorous or vindictive in her code of crim-
inal law. You are at the head in these United
States of a private association of immense power—*
co-extensive with the civilized world — knit together
by ties of strong prevailment even when secret^
scarcely less efficacious when divulged. Whan

* These «cti»6tf V9 iowirted io the Appeniisc to th» volume.

169

secret, they were riveted by pledges to the penalty
of death and mutilation in a multitude of forms,
given in the name of God, and varnished with an
imposture of sanctity, by being mingled up with
the most solemn testimonials of holy writ. Even
now, when your secrets are divulged, when your
obligations and penalties have been exposed in their
naked and undeniable nature, when you dare not
attempt to vindicate or defend them, when the
attempts of your brethren to explain them have
been proved fraudulent and delusive, when your
only resource of apology for using them is that they
are null and void— words utterly without meaning,
— yet you still persevere in adhering to them as the
ancient landmarks of the order. Ask yourself, sir,
not whether this is consistent with your report and
criminal code for Louisiana ; but whether it is
worthy of your character — of your stand in the
face of your country and of mankind ; of your repu-
tation in after time ; and if it is not and cannot
be, why should you not take the occasion of the
high dignity which in this association you have
attained, to propose and to promote its reformation ?
to divest it of that, which, so long as it continues,
can never cease to shed disgrace upon the whole
order ; of that which cannot even be repeated with-
out shame ?

You have taken no public notice of these letters

160

in your own name, nor have I been particularly
solicitous that you should. Had you ventured to
assume the defence of the Masonic oaths, obliga-
tions and penalties — had you presumed to commit
your name to the assertion that they can by any
possibility be reconciled to the laws of morality, of
Christianity, or of the land, I should have deemed
it my duty to reply, and to have completed the
demonstration before God and man that they can-
not. Of the multitude of defences of Masonry,
which have been obtruded upon the public since
this controversy arose, not one has dared to look
these obligations in the face, and assert their inno-
cence. Abuse upon the Antimasons for denouncing
them — impudent denials of their import, so long as
a remnant of the ragged veil of secrecy rent by the
seceders, could yet be drawn over their nakedness
— false and fraudulent explanations of their mean-
ing when disclosed beyond all possibility of denial,
and mystical and mystified declarations of inflexible
adherence to them under the name of the ancient
landmarks of the institution — these have been the
last resources, the forlorn hopes of the Masonic
obligations.

And this inflexible adherence to these ancient
landmarks is again recommended to the chapters
and lodges under your jurisdiction by the General
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, of which

161

you are the High Priest, at their triennial meeting
in Baltimore last November. At that meeting you
were re-elected to the dignity which you had held
from the time of your address to the companions
and brethren of the order at your installation in
April, 1830. A letter from you was read at that
meeting, apologizing for your absence from it, and
perhaps for the better' accommodation of the Grand
High Priest, that meeting was adjourned to be held
again in November, 1835, at the city of Wash-
ington.

There is a point of view in which I believe this
subject to be deeply interesting to the people of
this Union, upon which I have hitherto said nothing,
and upon which I do not wish to enlarge. The
President of the United States is a brother of the
craft, bound by its oaths, obligations and penalties,
to the exclusive favors, be they more or less, of
which they give the mutual pledge. That in the
troubles and difficulties which within the last seven
years have befallen the craft, they have availed
themselves of his name, and authority, and in-
fluence to sustain their drooping fortunes, as far as
has been in their power, has been matter of public
notoriety. A sense of propriety has restrained him
from joining in their processions, as he has been
importunately urged by invitations to do, but he has
not withheld from them his support. It is not mj

21

162

iatention to comment upon the operation of the
Masonic obligations, upon the two most recent
elections to the presidency of the United States, or
upon the official conduct of the President himself in
relation to the institution or its members. But
whoever will impartially reflect upon the import of
the Masonic obligations, and upon the public history
of the United States for the last ten years, must
come to the conclusion, that no President of the
United States ought ever to be shackled by such
obligations, or under the self-assumed burden of
such penalties. They establish between him and
all the members of the institution, and between
him and the institution itself, relations not only
different from, but utterly incompatible with those
in which his station places him with the whole com-
munity. That the President of the United States
is not at this moment an impartial person in the
question between Masonry and Antimasonry, nor
between Masons and Antimasons, has been fully
authenticated, by something more than the effusions
of your scullion in the Globe. He is not impar-
tial. How can he be impartial after trammelling
himself with promises, such as those which are now
unequivocally authenticated before the world ?

And you, Mr. Livingston, Secretary of State of

the United States, are at the same time Grand

I High Priest of the General Grand Royal Arch

163

Chapter of the United States ; and all the Royal
Arch Chapters of all the States of this Union are
under the jurisdiction of that over which you pre-
side. Are you impartial in the question between
Masonry and Antimasonry ? Are you, or can you
be impartial in any question which can arise
between Masons and Antimasons ? You com-
menced your official duties as Grand High Priest,
by a sweeping denunciation of all the Antimasons
in the Union. The Antimasons were then a great
political party. They are so still. You brought
against them, what I have proved to be, a most
unjust accusation. Are you impartial between
them and their adversaries? Has human nature
changed its properties since one of them was by
a profound observer said to be, to hate those whom
you have injured, * odisse quem laeseris ' ? How
far distant from such a denunciation of Antimasonry
a^ that with which you gratified your companions
and brethren at your installation, is the dismission
for Antimasonry of an officer of the United States,
dependent upon you for his place? Is it as far
as the department of state from the general post
office ? In all the trials before the judicial courts of
the State of New York, to which the abduction and
murder of Morgan has given rise, the efficacy of the
Masonic obligations upon sheriffs, jurors and wit-
Besses to warp them from their duty to their country

164

has been lamentably proved — what security can the
country possess that they will not operate in the
same manner upon a Secretary of State, or a Presi-
dent of the United States ? Were the Masonic
obligations equivocal in their character, were they
even susceptible of the explanations which have
been attempted to be given of them, the undeniable
fact, that they have been understood and acted upon
according to their literal import, by great multitudes
of Masons, to the total prostration of their duties to
the laws of their country, would be a conclusive
reason for abolishing them altogether. For if the
obligations are of a nature to be differently under-
stood by different persons, their consistency or in-
consistency with the laws of the land, must depend
upon the individual characters of those who have
assumed them. Bound by the same oaths, some of
the witnesses and jurors on the Masonic trials in
New York have given their testimony and true
verdicts, while others have obstinately refused their
testimony to facts within their knowledge, and
denied their assent to verdicts upon the clearest
proof. It has been judicially decided in the States
of New York and of Rhode Island that a person
under Masonic obligations, must be set aside as
disqualified to serve upon a jury in cases where one
of the parties is a Mason, and the other is not.
From the letter of his obligations he cannot be

165

impartial, and although some Masons may under-
stand them otherwise, neither the court, nor the
party whose rights and interests are staked upon
the trial, can have any assurance that the trial will
be fair. The same uncertainty must rest upon the
administration of executive officers. If the Presi-
dent of the United States, and the Secretary of
State, are bound by solemn oaths and under horrible
penalties to befriend and favor one class of individ-
uals in the community more than another, the pur-
poses for which those offices are instituted must be
frustrated ; a privileged order is palmed upon the
community, more corrupting, more pernicious than
the titles of nobility which our constitutions ex-
pressly prohibit, because its privileges are dispensed
and enjoined under an avowed pledge of inviolable
secrecy. In many of the New York chapters, the
promise to promote the political preferment of a
brother of the craft, over others equally qualified,
was one of the Royal Arch obligations to which the
companion was sworn upon the penalty of death.
How far such an obligation would influence the
official conduct of a President of the United States,
it is impossible to say ; but not more impossible
than for that officer to fulfil the obligations of such
a promise and to perform his duties with impar-
tiality.
At the time when you delivered the Address upon

166

your installation as Grand High Priest of the Gen-
eral Grand Chapter, Antimasonry had already exist-
ed upwards of three years. It was an extensive
political party, although then in a great measure
confined within the limits of the State of New York.
You denounced it in no measured terms. Had the
charges which you openly brought against it been
true, every individual within the scope of your de-
nunciation must have been an unworthy citizen and
a dishonest man. Such has been the tone of all the
defences and defenders of Masonry, from that day to
this. If the Masonic obligations were understood in
all ordinary times not to interfere with the religion
or the politics of individuals, how can it be possible
to preserve this nominal exception when Masonry
itself has become the most prominent object of po-
litical dissension ? As a political party, the Anti-
masons of the United States are, at this day, pro-
bably more numerous than the Masons. In several
of the States, the most important elections turn upon
that point alone. The Antimasons openly avow the
principle of voting for no other than Antimasonic
candidates. How is it possible for the Masons to
preserve themselves from the political bias, prompt-
ing them to repel Antimasonry ? They have in fact
no such equanimity. They never fail to bring for-
ward a candidate of their own when possible ; and
when they find it impracticable, they unite with any

167

party, whatever may be their aversion to it, and
however obnoxious its politics, to exclude the Anti-
mason.

In your letter to the General Grand Royal Arch
Chapter of the United States, of the 26th of Novem-
ber, 1832, apologizing to them for not attending at
their meeting, then about to be held at Baltimore,
you said thus — " You know (notwithstanding the
allegations of our enemies) that the duties we owe
to our country are paramount to the obligations of
Masonry, or to the indulgence of fraternal feelings."
Now, sir, my appeal is to the very principle here
asserted by yourself. I aver that your duty to your
country is violated by the administration of the
Masonic oaths and obligations under penalties of
death, invoked in the name of God — penalties mul-
tiplied beyond those of the most sanguinary code
that ever disgraced human legislation, and for
offences which the supreme law of the State cannot
recognize as the most trifling of misdemeanors.

At that triennial meeting of the General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, a com-
mittee was appointed ^' to take into consideration
the present situation of our [the Masonic] institu-
tion, and recommend such things and measures as
they in their wisdom may consider expedient and
necessary."

The report of that committee, and the resolutions

168

proposed by them, and adopted by the General
Grand Chapter of the United States, were the
immediate occasion of these letters to you. This
circumstance may account, in part, for what appears
to have surprised some of your friends — that I
should now hold you accountable for an address
delivered so long since as April, 1830. That was
your declaration of war against the Antimasons.
In November, 1832, you still proclaimed them to be
your enemies^ and the General Grand Royal Arch
Chapter, in full triennial meeting, repeated with
renewed and aggravated denunciations, all your
erroneous charges against them. Upon that report,
and upon the resolutions with which it closed, I
shall in my next letter submit to the consideration
of the public some observations.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, ESQ.

Qaincy, 12 June, 1833.

Sir, — From the official published report of the
proceedings of the General Grand Royal Arch
Chapter of the United States, at their triennial
meeting at Baltimore, last November, it appears
that a communication was made to that meeting
from the M. £. Nathan R. Haswell, G. H. P.

169

(meaning Grand High Priest) of the Grand Chap-
ter of Vermont, together with accompanying doc-
uments, and that this communication and the accom-
panying documents were referred to a committee
which is denominated one of the most important
committees then appointed, and they were instruct-
ed to take into consideration the present situation
of the Masonic institution, and to recommend such
things and measures, as they in their wisdom might
consider expedient and necessary.

The first remark that invites attention here, is, that
this meeting was composed of individuals all be-
longing to different States of this Union, some of
them occupying stations of power and dignity in
their several States. The chairman of the commit-
tee to whom this communication was referred, and
who made the report upon which I am to comment,
is a member of the executive council of the Com-
monwealth of Massachusetts, elected from a county
exceedingly divided upon the questions between
Masonry and Antimasonry — elected at the same
time another was excluded from the same office, who
though an ardent National Republican, and a sufferer
by proscription from office by the present national
administration, was discarded for a slight real or
suspected taint of Antimasonry.

Here then is a member of the council of the State
of Massachusetts, elected expressly in opposition to

29

170

the Antimasonic party of the county of Bristol in
that State, representing the Grand Royal Arch
Chapter of Massachusetts, at a general convention
of all the Royal Arch Chapters of the United States,
to which is referred a communication and documents
from the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Vermont.

That the report of a committee of which this gen-
tleman was the chairman, should be marked with
strong resentment against the Antimasons of Ver-
mont, was to be expected. Political Antimasonry
has been more successful in Vermont than in the
county of Bristol in Massachusetts.

The report, therefore, states that it appears from
the appeal published by the Masons in Vermont in
1829, that various presses had been established in
that State as vehicles of slander and malignity
against the adherents of Masonry.

This is precisely a repetition of the language of
your address at your installation in April, 1830. It
is certainly not a correct representation of factSi and
it contains itself a slanderous imputation upon a
majority of the people of the State of Vermont.

Now, sir, for a far more rational and accurate
history of Antimasonry as it existed in the State of
Vermont in the years 1829 and '30, I refer you to a
pamphlet entitled ^^ Masonic Penalties,'^ published
in August, 1830, by William Slade, now a member
elect of the House of Representatives of the United
States from that State.

171

In this pamphlet you will see that Mr. Slade com-
menced the publication of his essays on the Masonic
penalties, on the 7th of April, 1830, a very few days
before your installation and the delivery of your ad-
dress. You have probably never seen those essays ;
for it appears to be one of the maxims of Masonry,
while denouncing as slander, malignity and persecu-
tion, every impeachment of the institution, to ^* know
nothing about " the real serious charges against it-
It is therefore highly probable that you know noth-
ing about Mn Slade's essays on Masonic penalties.
And I take it for granted that the committee of the
Ueneral Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United
States, who reported this bitter denunciation against
the Antimasons of Vermont, knew no more about it
than you do. I will hazard a conjecture that among
the documents transmitted by the Grand High Priest
of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Vermont, and
npoH which the committee made their report, it
would be a vain search to look for Mr. Slade's
essays upon the Masonic penalties. ^* Dignified
silence " was the rule to be observed with regard to
them — and yet, sir, attempts were made to answer
them. It is so far from being true that presses were
ftet up in Vermont as vehicles of slander and malig-
nity against the adherents of Masonry, that the editor
of the Vermont American, who began the publication
of Mr. Slade's essays, suspended them after the third

172

number, under the terror of Masonic vengeance ; and
Mr. Slade was compelled to publish the remaining
numbers in an extra sheet. Yet the columns of the
Vermont American, when closed against Mr. Slade,
were opened to the defenders of Masonry, and two
writers, under the signatures of ^^ Common Sense of
the Old School,'^ and of " Senex," vainly attempted
to refute the unanswerable arguments of his first
three numbers. Mr. Slade replied, but was obliged
to resort to the pages of a free presSj one of those
defamed by the report of the committee of the Gen-
eral Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States.
Mr. Slade published in a pamphlet, under the re*
sponsibility of his name, his own essays, and those
of his adversaries; and this procedure was in the
same spirit of fairness and candor, which marked his
whole management of the controversy. I recom-
mend to you the serious and attentive perusal of the
pamphlet ; for if it should serve no other purpose
than to preserve you and the General Grand Royal
Arch Chapter of the United States from the reitera-
tion of insult and slander upon the people of a high-
ly respectable State of this Union^ it will have a just
claim to your grateful acknowledgments — insult and
slander upon the people of Vermont, who by their votes
at the last Presidential election, as well as by their
suflfrages at two succeeding elections for the exec-
utive officers and the State legislature, have signally

173

vindicated the cause of Antimasonry. To this re-
sult it is obvious that Mr. Slade's essays upon the
Masonic penalties, did in an eminent degree con-
tribute. It was impossible that they should fail to
produce their effect upon the minds of an intelligent
and virtuous people. These essays carry with them
internal and irresistible evidence in refutation of the
charge against the Antimasonic presses of Vermont,
proffered by the committee of the General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States. The
essays on the Masonic penalties are not less remark-
able for their moderation, delicacy and tenderness to
me adherents of Masonry, than for the close and
pressing cogency of their arguments against the in-
stitution. They charge not the adherents of Ma-
sonry, but Masonry itself, with the murder of Morgan
and all its execrable progeny of crimes.

The report of the committee proceeds to state
that the members of the Grand Lodge of Vermont,
and other Masons in the State, to the number of
Bearly two hundred, published in 1829 an appeal
declaring that they as Masons had been charged —

1. With being accessory to the abduction of
William Morgan.

2. With shielding Masons from just punishment
for crimes they might have committed.

3. With exercising a Masonic influence over
legislative, executive and judiciary branches of the
government.

174

4. With tampering with juries.
B. With exerting an improper influence for the
political preferment of the brotherhood.

6. With various blasphemous practices.

7. With causing the death of a distinguished
Mason.

8« With sanctioning principles at variance with
religion and virtue.

9. With the assumption of a power to judge
individual Masons by laws known only to the
fraternity, and to inflict punishments corporeally,
even unto the pains of death.

Of each and all of these charges they aflSrm in
the most solemn manner, that they were entirely
guiltless.

Now the error which pervades the whole of thia
declaration consists in this: that the individual
Masons who volunteer this plea of not guilty, apply
gratuitously to themselves the charges which the
Antifoasoiis bring against the institution to which
they belong, and to its initiatory obligations and
solemnities. The charges are against the plain
unequivocal import of the hws of Masonry. The
charges are that those laws do in their awn nature
lead to and instigate the commission of all those
crimes, and that they h€tve led to and instigated the
perpetration of them. Two hundred Masons of
Vermont declare tkeoiselves guiltless of aU th^se

175

charges. There are perhaps two thousand Masons
in the State — suppose the two hundred appellants
to be not guilty ; that surely no more proves the
innocence than it does the guilt of the remaining
eighteen hundred. Had the Masons of^V^ermont
been desirous of making up a recU issue between
themselves and the Antimasons, they should have
said, We have been charged with administering and
taking oaths and obligations, with multiplied pen-
alties of death, which lead into the temptation of
all those crimes, and which have led to the com-
mission of them, and we have been urged to abolish
these oaths, obligations and penalties.

There is another error in this statement of the
charges against themselves, to which the appellants
pleaded not guilty, evidently suited to evade the
real question at issue. Their charges are couched
in general and indefinite terms, prepared for the
purpose of meeting them with positive denial, by
the mental reservation of their own misconstruc-
tions. They say, for example, that they have been
charged with various blasphemous practices. Now
what do they mean by blasphemous practices ?
Blasphemy, by the common law, and by some of
the statutes of the States, is an indictable crime—
and it is defined by Blackstone to be the denial of
the being or providence of God; or contumelious
reproaches of our Saviour, Christ ; or profane scoffs

176

ing at the holy Scripture, or exposing it to contempt
and ridicule.

Now, sir, if before the disclosures of William
Morgan, at the ceremonies of initiation to the sev-
eral degrees of Masonrj, the Grand High Priests of
Royal Arch Chapters, and the Masters of Lodges,
instead of consciously hiding their heads in secrecy;
if you, sir, as the Sovereign Master, or Most Excel-
lent Prelate of an Encampment, as the Grand High
Priest, or Principal Sojourner of a Chapter, or as the
Master of a Lodge, had exhibited in public the the-
atrical representations of the murder of Hiram AbiflT,
of Moses and the God of heaven in the burning bush,
and of drinking the fifth libation from a human skull,
with an invocation by the drinker of all the sins of
him whose skull formed that cup, upon his own
head ; if in the presence of your fellow-citizens, you
had uttered, as equally grave and solemn truth, a
narrative compounded one half of quotations from
holy writ, and the other half of the senseless and
brutal mummeries of Masonry, would you have been
surprised, if the next morning a grand jury of your
country had presented you for blasphemy? Could
you have imagined any thing more calculated to
bring reproach and contempt and ridicule upon the
name of God and upon the Holy Scriptures ? If
any one of the ministers of God whom you allure
into the bosom of a charitable institution, by admit-

177

ting them gratuitously to its promises and its rewards,
should tell his people from the pulpit, that Hiram
Abiff, the widow's son, was Master of a Lodge of
Masons, at the building of Solomon's Temple ; that
he was murdered by three Fellow Crafts, named
Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum ; that those three Fel-
low Crafts had suffered the penalties which thej
had invoked upon themselves, and that ever since
that time those same penalties had been the stand-
ing penalties of the first three degrees of Masonry,
would there be one hearer of that minister of Christ
beyond the reach of the cable-tow, but would pro-
nounce him guilty of provoking contempt and ridi-
cule upon the Scriptures ?

Why, sir, if the pastor of a Christian church
should bind up Gulliver's Travels between the Old
and New Testament of his Bible, and read indis-
criminately from the whole, the gospel, epistle, or
collect of the day, what opinion would his auditory
form of his piety or his morals ? And yet there is
much of truth, and much of moral instruction in
Gulliver's Travels. Far, far more of wisdom in the
philosophers of the flying island of Lagado, than in
the bungling metamorphosis of Hiram, the Tyrian
brass-founder at the building of Solomon's Temple,
into a Master Mason, or in the ^^ butcheries which
would disgust a savage " executed upon the three
Tyrian Fellow Crafts, and which you require of the

83

178

candidates for admission to the three first degrees,
to invoke upon themselves.

These are the practices which some of the ardent
and zealous Antimasons of Vermont may possibly
have qualified as blasphemous. I am not willing to
consider them as such. That very secrecy under
which they are performed, and which otherwise con-
stitutes one of the most powerful objections to the
institution, may perhaps relieve it from the charge
of blasphemy. The intention is not to provoke
contempt and ridicule upon the Scriptures, although
the efiect of them, as dramatic fictions, must often
be to produce it. When John Milton published his
Paradise Lost, Andrew Marvell declared that be for
some time misdoubted his intent,

Tliat he would ruin
The sacred truths to fable and old song —

And he adds —

Or if a work so infinite be spanned.
Jealous I was that some lees skilful hand.
Might hence presume the whole ereation*s day,
To change in seenes, and show U m afl/og*

That which the penetrating sagacity and sincere
piety <tf Andrew Marvell apprehended as an evil
which might result even from the sublime strains of
the Paradise Lost, is precisely what the contrivers of

179

the Masonic mysteries have effected. They have
travestied the avi^ful and miraculous supernatural
communications of the ineffable Jehovah to his fa-
vored people, into stage plays. That Word, which
in the beginning was with God, and was God ; that
abstract, incorporeal, essential and ever-living exist-
ence ; that eternal presence without past, without
future time ; that Being, without beginning of days
or end of years, declared to Moses under the name
of I AM THAT I AM ; the mountebank juggle-
ries of Masonry turn into a farce. A companion of
the Royal Arch personates Almighty God, and de-
clares himself the Being of all eternity — I AM
THAT I AM. Your intention in the performance
of this ceremony is to strike the imagination of the
candidate with terror and amazement. I acquit the
fraternity, therefore, of blasphemy. But I cannot
acquit them of extreme indiscretion, and inexcusable
abuse of the Holy Scriptures. The sealed obliga-
tion, the drinking of wine Grom a human skull, is a
ceremony not less objectionable. This you know,
sir, is the scene, in which the candidate takes the
skull in his hand and says, ^^ As the sins of the whole
world were laid upon the head of our Saviour, so
may the sins of the person whose skull this once
was, be heaped upon my head in addition to my
own ; and may they appear in judgment against me,
both here and hereafter, should I violate any obli-

180

gation in Masonry or the orders of knighthood
which I have heretofore taken, take at this time, or
may be hereafter instructed in ; so help me God,"
— and he drinks the wine from the skull.

And is not this enough ? No. The Knight
Templar takes an oath containing many promises —
binding himself under no less penalty than to have
his head struck off and placed on the highest spire
in Christendom, should he knowingly or willingly
violate any part of his solemn obligation of a Knight
Templar.

Mr. Livingston, is this a fitting obligation for a
Christian man to take or to administer ? Can you,
can any man be surprised if some of the Antimasons
of Vermont have mistaken it for blasphemy ? When
the Masons of Vermont, or when the Grand En-
campment of the United States shall feel sufficient
confidence in their own integrity to meet the real
charges against the institution face to face, let them
not resort to their refuge of secrecy, as a hunted
ostrich hides his head in the sand — let them frankly
acknowledge the dramatic exhibition of the burning
bush, and the mystical cup of the fifth libation, and
give their definition of blasphemy from which these
practices shall be pure.

And these remarks apply equally to the declara-
tions of the Masons in Connecticut, and of the twelve
hundred in Massachusetts. The report of the com-

181

mittee of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter
says, that these declarations were made with ap-
parent sincerity of heart, that they denied the
charges against them, [the Masons,] ^^ and univer-
sally cast themselves and their cause upon the good
sense of the country, for a calm, dispassionate and
enlightened verdict."

And here the report of the committee rested the
statement respecting the condition of Masonry in
Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The
meeting of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter
was held at the close of November, 1832. The
committee was raised to report upon the present
condition of Masonry — and they report a declaration
of two hundred Masons in Vermont in 1829, and a
declaration of twelve hundred Masons of Massachu-
setts in 1831.

Mr. Slade's essays upon the Masonic penalties
were published in Vermont in 1830, a year after the
appeal of the two hundred Masons. The charters
of incorporation of the Masonic Lodges in Vermont
were revoked by the legislature of that State in
1831. An Antimasonic Governor and Council, and
Antimasonic Electors of President and Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States, were elected in 1831 and
1832 — the last within one month before the meet-
ing of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the
United States. These were all significant indica-

182

tions of the verdict passed by the people of Vermont
upon the appeal of the two hundred Masons of 1829.
But upon all these, the committee of the Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States observe a
<^ dignified silence." Like the Rhode Island Grand
Lodge, with regard to the kidnapping and murder
of Morgan by Royal Arch Masons, ihey knew noth^
ing about it.

The declaration of the twelve hundred Masons of
Massachusetts was published in December, 1831.
In September, 1832, less than three months before
the meeting of the General Grand Royal Arch
Chapter of the United States, a State Antimasonic
Convention was held at Worcester, at which an ad-
dress was adopted, containing a counter declaration
to that of the twelve hundred. A committee of that
Convention tendered to the Grand Lodge and Grand
Chapter, an issue, upon thirty-eight specific allega-
tions against the Masonic institution, to be tried, in
any form best adapted to establish truth and expose
imposition. And what was the answer of the twelve
hundred Masons, who had made the declaration?
*^ Dignified silence." What was the answer of the
Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of Massachusetts ?
^< Dignified silence." And what the report of the
committee of the General Royal Arch Chapter of
the United States, on the [then] present condition
of the Masonic institution ? '^ Dignified silence.^'

183 j

The twelve hundred Masons of Massachusetts, like
the two hundred Masons of Vermont, make a state-
ment of charges which thej can safely deny — as-
sume them as the charges of the Antimasons against
them, deny them, and then put themselves upon the
country. When the Antimasons tender them a di-
rect issue, upon specific charges, equally serious and
explicit, the twelve hundred — the Grand Lodge —
the Grand Chapter — all stand rnvtCj and the report
of the committee of the General Grand Royal Arch
Chapter of the United States, upon the present
condition of the Masonic institution, goes back one,
two and three years to tell of the declarations of
Masons in Massachusetts and in Vermont. But as
to any Antimasonic refutation of those declarations,
the committee knew nothing about it.

The report of the committee of the General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States was there- '
fore an incorrect representation of the state of the
Masonic institution, so far as concerned the States
of Massachusetts and Vermont, nor was it more
accurate in its reference to the state of Masonry in
Rhode Island.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

184

TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, ESQ.

duincy, 23 July, 183a

Sir, — You have seen in my last letter, the state-
ment made by the committee of the General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, at their
meeting in November last, of the then present
CONDITION of the Masonic institution, in the States
of Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. You
have seen that to exhibit this present condition of
the craft, the report of the committed travelled
backward in the race of time, one, two and three
years, to the declarations of their own innocence, by
certain Masons of those States — the exclamation of
Macbeth to Banquo — " Thou canst not say I did it !^^
But that upon the more recent events — the revoca-
tion of the Masonic charters in Vermont, the suc-
cessive issues of the popular elections in that State,
and the thirty-eight specific charges against Masonry
tendered by the committee of the Antimasonic Con-
vention at Worcester, to the presiding officers of the
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Massachusetts and of
the Grand Lodge ; upon all this, the committee of
the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the
United States observed a profound and ^^ dignified
silence." And yet, sir, that issue of thirty-eight
charges had been tendered on the 11th of Septem-

186

ber, 1832 — nearly nine months after the declaration
of the twelve hundred Masons of Massachusetts, and
less than three months before the meeting of the
General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United
States at Baltimore.

Now, sir, was not the presiding officer of the
Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Massachu-
setts, to whom this issue was tendered, the identi-
cal chairman of the committee of the General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, which
made this report on the then present condition of
Masonry in the United States? And if he was,
upon what principle admissible in a narrative of real-
ities, could a report upon the present condition of
Masonry in the United States, go back three years
for declarations of Masonic innocence, and overlook
or totally suppress the recent and actually present
charges of Masonic guilt, which must have been yet
sounding in the ears of the chairman of the General
Grand Royal Arch Chapter who made the report ?
Is not the chronology of Masonry as peculiar to it-
self as its logic ?

The committee upon the present condition of
Masonry in the United States proceeded further to
report, that from certain documents which had been
for a long time before the public, it appeared that
very different measures in relation to the subject had
been adopted in the State of Rhode Island ; and so

186

the committee reporting upon the present condition
of the institution, chose to resort only to documents
which had been a long time before the public.
Thej say,

That in Rhode Island, ^^ a memorial emanating
from an Antimasonic Convention, held in December,
1830, charging the Grand Lodge and other Masonic
bodies with violations of the constitution and the
laws of the land, was formally presented to the legis-
lature of the State, and the Grand Lodge, in review-
ing that memorial, challenged the strictest scrutiny,
and offered the greatest facilities to an investigation
of all their concerns ;" but that "it seems, however,
that after the most laborious and patient investiga-
tion of the subjects referred to in the memorial by
an able and impartial committee, the lodges were
Sustained by the legislature of the State, and were
VIRTUALLY and triumphantly acquitted from all the
charges which had been brought against them.''

And who would imagine that within two months
after this representation of the present condition of
Masonry in Rhode Island, the legislature of that
State did, by unanimous assent in both houses,
enact a law, prohibiting the administration of all ex-
tra-judicial and of course of all Masonic oaths, upon
no less penalties than a fine of one hundred dollars
for the first offence, and political disfranchisement
for the second ? This was the first result of that

187

investigation, which the committee of the General
Grand Royal Arch Chapter consider as having
issued so triumphantly for the lodges and chapters
of Rhode Island,

They pronounce the investigating committee of
the Rhode Island legislature ^^ able and impartial."
Of their ability no question will be made ; but where
did the reporter of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter
of the United States find the evidence of their im-
partiality ? Was it in the report of the majority, or
in that of the minority of the investigating commit-
tee ? Was it in the exclusion by the majority of the
committee, of the very memcN-ialists who had brought
the charges against Masonry before the legislature,
from all participation in the investigation ? Was it
in the bargain made by the chairman of the commit-
tee with the Masonic dignitaries of the State, that
if they would give their obligations, they should not
be questioned about their secrets ? — a bargain made
without the knowledge or consent of at least one
member of the committee. A bargain to which the
Masonic authorities held the committee of the legis-
lature so strictly, that they repeatedly refused to
answer questions most pertinent to the investigation,
appealing to the chairman himself for the perform-
ance of his promise, that they should not be required
to disclose any of their secrets. Is that the impar-
tiality of a legislative investigation of charges of

188

crimination ? — first to exclude those who make the
charges, from all participation in the process of in-
quiry— and then to contract with the parties accused,
that they shall be privileged to refuse answering upon
every thing which they choose to keep secret. This
was the course of proceeding of this impartial com-
mittee.

You are too well acquainted with the prevailing
politics in the legislature of Rhode Island, at the
time when this committee was appointed, not to
know, that the main object of its appointment was
to put down Antimasonry in Rhode Island. The
resolution for appointing it was prepared by the
chairman, but was offered by another member. In
urging the passage of the resolution, both these per-
sons indulged themselves in bitter invectives against
the Antimasons, and the report of the majority of
the committee carries upon every page the most
conclusive internal evidence that the purpose for
which the committee was raised, was to screen the
Masonic institution and brotherhood from the inves-
tigation which had been demanded by the Antima-
sonic memorial, and to substitute in its place a
colorable examination, upon which the Masons
should answer just so much as should suit them-
selves, and fall back upon their obligations of secrecy
whenever they should think a disclosure adverse to
their interests.

189

The proceedings of the majority of the committee
were conformable to the principles with which they
entered upon the performance of the service assigned
to them. The examination was so conducted that
the Masonic witnesses answered just so far as they
thought proper, and when a question was put, which
from very shame they loathed to answer, they ap-
pealed to their agreement with the chairman, and
set the inquiry at defiance.

The committee stated in their report that, aware
of the scruples of the Masonic witnesses about dis-
closing their Masonic secrets, which they had prom-
ised not to disclose, they ^< resolved unanimously that
they would require the Masons to communicate to
them fully, their Masonic oaths or obligations, and
to answer all questions which should be asked re-
specting them — those obligations not being consid-
ered as part of their secrets " — but " as to their
signs, and tokens, and words, contrived to enable
Masons, and none others, to enter lodges and to
distinguish one another from those not Masons, a
majority of the committee believed that the public
would have no curiosity about them^ and that it
would not be a profitable or creditable employment
for the committee to endeavor to pry into them.^^

Admirable impartiality ! Unlawful and immoral
secret rites and ceremonies, was the first and fore-
most of all the charges against Masonry, from the

190

sinking of their yictim in the waters of the Niagara
river. The supreme legislative authority of the
State are called upon to investigate the subject.
They appoint a committee for that purpose. The
committee, possessed of the vt^hole authority of the
State to command testimony and elicit the whole
truth — begin by excluding the accusers from all
participation in the inquiry, and then bargain with
the accused to ask no questions about their secrets,
if they will but divulge what they themselves con-
sider as no secret at all.

I do not propose to follow" the majority of the
committee through the mazes of their most extra-
ordinary report. The report of Mr. Sprague, the
member of the committee whose views differed
from those of his colleagues, and the authentic
report of their proceedings by Benjamin F. Hallett
and George Turner, have shown in full relief the
meaning of the word impartiality^ as exemplified by
the committee and their chairman who drew up
their report. And yet, so far was the committee
entitled to the praise of impartiality, that they came
unanimously to the conclusion that the insiituiion of
Freemasonry ought to be abolished^ and the report
concludes with an earnest and eloquent exhortation
to the Masonic fraternity to abandon it.

Is it not very remarkable that the report to the
General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United

191

States, upon the present condition of Masonry,
which so highly approves this report of the Rhode
Island investigating committee, takes not the slight-
est notice of this their opinion and exhortation?
The Grand Royal Arch report affirms that upon the
report of the Rhode Island investigating committee,
" the lodges were sustained by the legislature of
the State.'' Sustained ! This " able and impar-
tial " committee say,

*^ It cannot be doubted that the lodges and chap-
ters in that part of the State [of New York] had it
fully in their power to have detected and brought to
justice many of the criminals concerned in the ab-
duction of Morgan, if not those concerned in his
murder. And yet we do not find that they have
expelled a single member, or made any manner of
inquiry about them. Can it be denied that by
such conduct those lodges and chapters have impli-
cated themselves in the guilt of those transactions
and made themselves responsible for it ? And not
they alone are implicated. The higher Masonic
authorities^ to whom they are subordinate and ac-
countable, are equally implicated and responsible.^^

The higher authorities, to whom the chapters in
that part of the State of New York are subordinate
and accountable, are the Grand Chapter of the
State, and the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter
of the United States. Yes, sir, in this passage of

192

the Rhode Island <^ able and impartial " investiga-
ting committee's report, the very chapter of which
you are the High Priest, the General Grand Royal
Arch Chapter of the United States, is implicitly
charged with being implicated and responsible for
the guilt of the murder of Morgan. How comes it,
sir, that the committee of the General Grand Royal
Arch Chapter of the United States, reporting upon
the present condition of Masonry, and expressly
referring to this report of the investigating legisla-
tive committee of Rhode Island, should have over-
looked entirely this charge against the Grand Royal
Arch Chapter of the United States itself? How
dared that committee to affirm that, as the result of
that investigation, the lodges were sustained by the
legislature of the State ? The report of the Rhode
Island investigating committee expressly charges the
Grand Chapter of New York, and the General
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States,
with being implicated in and responsible for the
murder of Morgan, and the atrocious transactions
connected with it, and the report of the General
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States,
calls this a triumphant acquittal of the lodges of
Rhode Island.

Permit me, sir, to present to your consideration
two more extracts, from the same report of the major-
ity of the Rhode Island investigating committee : —

193

" The old forms of the oaths, which are still ad-
hered to, are extremely improper. It is true that
the construction which the Masons put upon them
in this State [Rhode Island] renders them harmless,
but that is by no means the natural construction of
the language itself. The oaths taken by them-
selves, without being corrected and controlled by
the addresses and charges, are, according to the
terms of them, clearly crirainaL And can it be
proper to take obligations, the different parts of
which are in direct collision with and contradiction
to each other, and yet the whole to be sworn to ?

" But it is an insurmountable objection to those
oaths, that they are liable to a construction which
renders them in the highest degree criminal and
dangerous ; and that such a construction has actu-
ally been put upon them by Masons, and has been
productive of the most dreadful consequences.''

The following is the concluding sentence of the
report : —

" This committee cannot but come to the con-
clusion that the Masons owe it to the community, to
themselves, and to sound principles, now to discon*
tinue the Masonic institutions."

To what a desperate extremity must the commit-
tee of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of
the United States have been reduced for matter to
report upon the present condition of Masonry, when

25

194

they were willing to accept and represent this as a
triumphant acquittal of the Rhode Island lodges and
chapters !

Yet this was the report of a committee so partial
to the Masonic fraternity, that, invested with the
entire legislative power to investigate their institu-
tion, they did in fact abdicate their legitimate rights
and powers, by a bargain with the Masons, to screen
them from the exposure of their most odious cere-
monies. They accepted and countenanced a fraud-
ulent explanation, and pretended construction of the
penalties of the Masonic oaths. Fraudulent, as
every Master Mason must know, who at his recep-
tion is told that the penalties are, and have been
from the building of Solomon's Temple, the same
penalties which were executed upon the murderers
of Hiram Abiff.

The allegation by the Rhode Island committee,
that they considered it an unprofitable employment
to be prying into Masonic secrets, would be more
plausible, if those secrets consisted only of the
<* signs, and tokens, and words, contrived to enable
Masons, and none others, to enter lodges, and to
distinguish one another from those not Masons ; " —
but how is the fact ? The tokens and passwords
are, to be sure, of the character described by Sir
Toby Belch, in Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, " most
excellent, sense-/e55.'' But the signs are explana-

195

tory of the true meaning of the penalties, and when
the committee compelled the Masons to give the
words of their obligations, was it not an incongruous
scruple of delicacy, to draw the veil over the coinci-
dent signs which give to those words their most
energetic significancy ?

Under the exceedingly accommodating indulgence
of the investigating committee, the Knights Tem-
plars of Rhode Island were permitted to skulk from
all testimony relating to the fifth libation, denomi-
nated in Masonic language the sealed obligation.
How the committee, consistently with their own
rule, could release the witnesses from testifying to
that pious solemnity, it is not easy to see. The
oath of the Knight Templar has, like the rest, a
penalty, which is, having the swearer's skull smitten
off and suspended to " rest high on spires," as the
Masonic minstrels deliciously sing; and that oath
and penalty the Rhode Island Knights did give ac-
cording to contract with the committee. But the
fifth libation is an obligation of higher order. The
temporal penalties of cruel death, and barbarous
mutilation, are not sufficient to bind the conscience
of the Knight Templar. In the fifth libation, he
invokes eternal punishment upon his immortal soul.
He calls upon God, his Creator, to visit upon him at
the judgment day, not only his own sins, but all the
sins of his fellow-mortal man, from whose skull he
quaffs the cup of abomination and of mystery.

196

The most remarkable scene in the investigation
of the Rhode Island committee, was that in which
William Wilkinson, a Knight Templar, and a man
of most respectable character, was examined with
reference to this sealed obligation, the fifth libation.
The words always uttered before drinking the wine
from the skull, were read to him from Allyn's Ritual,
page 250, and he was asked whether they were ad-
ministered to him on taking the Knight Templar's
obligation. He answered, " These words made no
part of the obligation which was administered to
me on taking the Knight Templar's degree."

From this answer an unlearned and uninitiated
person would naturally conclude that these words
form no part of the ceremony of initiation to the
Knight Templar's degree, and it is from denials of
precisely the same character as this, that the great
mass of adhering Masons, ministers of the holy gos-
pel included, have labored to blast the credit of
AUyn's and Bernard's books ; but Mr. Wilkinson's
denial hinged upon the word obligation only. There
is, as I have remarked, another obligation adminis-
tered to the Knight Templar, on taking his degree,
and that obligation was among those furnished to
the committee. That was the obligation which Mr.
Wilkinson had in his mental contemplation, when he
denied that the words of the sealed obligation were
part of THE obligation administered to him. Had

197

the examination rested there, well might the com-
mittee of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the
United States have boasted of the triumphant ac-
quittal of the Rhode Island Masons. But here the
examination did not rest. Mr. Wilkinson was asked
whether these said words were used in any ceremo-
ny of initiation to the Knight Templar's degree ?
His answer was, " In regard to the secrets or cere-
monies of this, or any other degrees in Masonry, I
neither affirm or deny any thing." Upon this there
was some altercation between the witness and the
chairman of the committee, who very justly consid-
ered this as an obligation which the Masons were
bound to give, but instead of exercising the authori-
ty vested in the committee by the legislature, and
exacting an answer, he argued with the witness to
persuade him to answer, and finished by submitting
to his refusal. This was indeed the triumph of
Masonry ; not the triumph of acquitted innocence,
but the triumph of sturdy contumacy, setting at de-
fiance the legislative authority of the State.

That Mr. Wilkinson should be ashamed to ac-
knowledge that he had ever pronounced, with an
appeal to God, such words as those, and accompa-
nied them with such an action, is creditable to his
sense of discrimination between right and wrong.
The sealed obligation is not one of those signs,
grips, tokens or pass-words, by which the Masonic

198

fraternity discern the genuine from the spurious im-
postor. It is one of the obligations of the craft,
which the committee had determined to require, and
which the Rhode Island Masons were bound by the
terms of their agreement with the chairman of the
committee to give. The fifth libation, therefore —
the potation from the skull of " Old Simon," and
the invocation of all the sins, heinous and deadly as
they may be, of another man, upon the head of the
self-devoted Knight Templar, are yet, so far as
adhering Masonic acknowledgment is concerned,
'^undivulged crimes — unwhipped of justice." Mr.
Wilkinson did not venture to deny that the words
of the sealed obligation were precisely those record-
ed in Allyn's Ritual — he neither affirmed nor
denied. The full, adhering Masonic authentication
of the sealed obligation, is reserved for the investi-
gation of a committee more resolute and less com-
promising with the transcendent sovereignty of
Freemasonry than the Rhode Island committee was
found to be. A more searching investigation of the
laws of the Masonic empire will be required to
discover, in all its loveliness^ that feature of its code.
In the Rhode Island investigations another witness,
a minister of the gospel, upon being asked if be
had drank wine from a human skull, answered, —
^* I do not know that it can affect the interests of
any one whether I drank wine out of a skull, a tin

199

cup, or a basio." A third witness declined answer-
ing the question.

In the 251st page of Allyn's Ritual — the very
next page after that which discloses the formula
used in drinking the fifth libation, there is the fol-
lowing note : —

" The sealed obligation is referred to by Tem-
plars, in confidential communications relative to
matters of vast importance, when other Masonic
obligations seem insufficient to secure secrecy,
silence and safety. Such for instance was the
murder of William Morgan, which was communi-
cated from one Templar to another, under the
pledge and upon this sealed obligation. The at-
tentive ear receives the sound from the instructive
tongue ; and the mysteries of Freemasonry were
safely lodged in the repository of faithful breasts—
until it was communicated in St. John's Hall, New
York, in an encampment of Knights Templars,
March 10, 1828."

To this fact, Mr. Allyn made oath before a mag-
istrate in the city of New York, and that it was so
communicated to him at an encampment of Knights
Templars. Of the pains that have been taken to
discredit Allyn's testimony, it is not necessary for
me to speak ; but in the twenty-second of CoL
Stone's Letters, page 238, there is a frank and full
acknowledgment by him, himself a Knight Tern-

200

plar, that after having long totally disbelieved the
statement, he did finally satisfy himself that it was
substantially true.

With the thoughts that crowd upon me in recur-
ring to this proof of the power and practices of
Masonry, I witl not now trouble you or the public.
The legislature of Rhode Island, after such an
investigation even as this, prohibited the administra-
tion of all extra-judicial oaths. How their commit-
tee could submit to the suppression of Masonic
testimony to the sealed obligation is not easily
explained. But the agonies of the Knights Tem-
plars at the very call upon them to testify to the
sealed obligation, are eloquent commentaries upon
the note in the 251st page of Allyn's Ritual, and
upon the candid acknowledgment in Col. Stone's
twenty-second Letter.

And so, sir, the murder of William Morgan was,
by one of its perpetrators, regularly communicated
to an encampment of Knights Templars in the city
of New York, in March, 1828, and those Knights
Templars (Col. Stone, who certifies to the fact,
knows not who they are — he thinks them unworthy,
but in the vocabulary of the handmaid they are
worthy Masons) assisted this murderer, and fur-
nished him with the means of escaping from the
retribution of public justice and the laws of the
land!

201

And yet, this was entirely conformable to the
laws of Masonry. It interfered in no respect with
the religion or politics of any one Knight Templar
of the encampment ! It was a memorable exempli-
fication of the promise to assist a worthy brother in
extricating him from difficulty, whether he is right
or wrong. It was most sincerely explanatory of the
obligation to conceal the secrets of a worthy brother,
murder and treason not excepted, or excepted at the
option of the Sir Knight himself — and it did not even
exact of the illustrious brotherhood that they should
go barefoot to apprize this " western sufferer " of
the danger with which he was threatened ; and
these transactions all occurred before the revelation
of the obligations of the higher degrees of Masonry
by the Le Roy convention of seceders, on the 4th July,
1828. Of these facts, thus notorious, thus abomina-
ble, thus undeniable, why have the legislature, why
has the executive of the State of New York, why have
the grand juries of the city, never been informed ?
Why have the General Grand Encampment of the
United States observed upon these acts of men under
their jurisdiction, a dignified silence ? Why, but be-
cause they have resolved to adhere, and have recom-
mended to the brotherhood under their jurisdiction to
adhere, to the ancient landmarks of the institution ?

Mr. Livingston, I shall here close the series of
letters which I have addressed to you as the head

96

202

and most conspicuous member of the Masonic fra-
ternity in these United States — holding at the same
time offices of high dignity, power and influence in
the government of the Union. The General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States, of which
you are the Grlind High Priest, did, at their triennial
meeting at Baltimore last November, highly commend
certain chapters and lodges which had changed,
most essentially changed, their own nature, by sub-
stituting the study of the useful arts and sciences, for
the miserable fooleries of their pageantry, and did
earnestly recommend to all the chapters under their
jurisdiction, the same excellent reformation and
transformation. It was that recommendation which
suggested to me the idea of calling upon you to ac-
complish a revolution still more useful and commend-
able— the abolition of all the execrable oaths, obliga-
tions and penalties, which, until they shall be utterly
abolished, are, and must be, an indelible disgrace
to the institution. If you have power to convert
your lodges into lyceums and your chapters and en-
campments into schools of science, you cannot lack
the power of redeeming the institution from the
infamy of lawless oaths, of barbarous obligations, of
brutal penalties — with that infamy your institution
is now polluted, as it is with the blood of William
Morgan, nor can the " labor '' or " refreshment ^' of
all the Royal Arch Chapters on the globe wash it
out.

203

It IS in your power, sir, to remove this stumbling-
block and this foolishness from the institution over
which you preside, forever. Look to the seventh
chapter of the First Book of Kings, and you will find
that Hiram of Tjnre, the widow's son, who worked alt
the building of the Temple of Solomon, was not a
Mason — but " cunning to work all works in brass.**
Whether this fitted him the better for the selection
of the first contrivers of your order, as the founder
of the craft, is a problem for your learned and es-
pecially for your clerical antiquarians to solve ; but
the fact that he was a workman in brass^' and that
the two pillars in the porch of the temple, Jachin
and Boaz, were not works of Masonry, but of brass j
stamps with gross imposture the whole history of the
institution. In like manner every pretension of the
order to historical connection with any portion of the
Holy Scriptures, is imposture, and must be known
so to be to every intelligent minister of the gospel,
who takes upon himself your obligations.

The existence of such an order is a foul blot upon
the morals of a community. The strength, the
glory, the happiness of a nation are all centred in
the purity of its morals ; and institutions founded
upon imposture, are the worst of all corruptions, for
they poison the public morals at their fountains, and
by multiplying the accomplices in guilt, arm them
with the confidence of virtue*

204

Whether your dignity as the head of the Royal
Arch of this Union, is to cease upon your departure
from this country, or to continue during your ab-
sence, has not yet been announced to the world ;
but in either event, be assured that neither your
Masonic addresses, nor the proceedings of the Gen-
eral Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States,
will henceforth pass without observation into ob-
livion.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

TO MESSRS. TIMOTHY MERRILL, HENRY P. JANES, MAR-
TIN FLINT, CHARLES DAVIS, EDWARD D. BARBER,
SAMUEL N. SWEET and AMOS BLISS, Committee of the
Antimasomc State Convention, held at Montpelier, in the State of
Vennont, on the 2Gth of June, 1833.

Qaincy, 17 July, 1833.

Fellow Citizens, — I have received, with great
satisfaction, your letter of the 27th ult., and with
warm sensibility the resolutions which you have
communicated to me of the Antimasonic Convention,
held at Montpelier the preceding day.

The entire character of the institution of Freema-
sonry has not yet been displayed to the inspection
of mankind. That it is essentially vicious and
grossly irrational, has been demonstrated beyond all
possibility of reply ; but the extent and degree to

206

which it vitiates the morals, and prostrates the in-
tellect of its votaries, has not yet been wholly dis-
closed. It is among the most ordinary symptoms of
mental insanity that the faculty of reason is sound
and vigorous upon every subject on which it is
exercised save one, and at the same time irrecover-
ably distempered on that one. There are similar
aberrations of moral principle in the conduct and
character of individuals, and it has often been re-
marked that corporate bodies of men are capable of
committing, without a blush, acts from which every
individual of the association would shrink with in-
stinctive horror.

The institution of Freemasonry is founded upon
historical imposture ; and can a Christian remark it
without disgust, upon imposture foisted upon sacred
history ? — upon imposture falsifying the most awful
truths of the gospel ? — upon imposture contaminating
with unhallowed step the holy of holies itself ?

The fable upon which the first three degrees of
Masonry is founded, carries absurdity and falsehood
upon its face. There are fraud and duplicity in the
oaths and obligations into which the candidates for
initiation are unwarily drawn. They are first made
to invoke upon themselves the penalties of death and
brutal mutilation if they should reveal the senseless
secrets to be imparted to them, and then they are
told a tale of three Fellow Crafts who like them

206

had invoked these penalties upon themselves, and
upon whom the penalties had been executed — not
for revealing the secrets which they had been sworn
to keep, but for murdering the first Grand Master in
the attempt to extort one of the secrets from him.
Ministers of the word of God have the oaths, invok*
ing these penalties upon themselves, administered
to them gratuitously and take them for nothing,
while other poor blind candidates are laid under
tribute for the privilege of burdening their con-
sciences with the same loads. After taking them,
they are told that these have been the standing
penalties for violation of the oaths of secrecy which
they have taken, ever since ihey were executed upon
the murderers of the first Grand Master. This first
Grand Master of Masonry, they are told, was Hiram
of Tyre, whom the Holy Scriptures d^JchTe to have
been a workman in brass; and they are assured
that he was murdered by three Tyrians with Roman
names three hundred years before Rome existed.

In this tortuous and fraudulent process of admin-
istering the oath^, and then delivering a lecture upon
their pretended origin, some apology may be found
for the hundreds of Masons in your State and in
others, who have so stoutly maintained, in the face
of their fellow-citizens, that they never had taken
any oaths incompatible with their duties to God and
their country. To this process may be traced the

207

utterly groundless explanation by which they have
confounded treachery with martyrdom, and con-
strued the penalty of death /or revealing secrets into
a sufferance of murder, rather than reveal the secrets.
The terms of the oaths are plain, explicit and une-
quivocal. The promise is to suffer death as a pen-
alty, if the swearer reveals the secrets of Masonry, i^
or of Masons. And he is to suffer the death self-
invoked, as the Tyrian Fellow Crafts, with Roman
names, did suffer death for violation of Masonic law.
The Tyro-Romans indeed had invoked these penal-
ties upon themselves, after committing murder as
well as a breach of Masonic law, and Hiram, the
brazier, Grand Master of Masons, had suffered death
rather than reveal out of time and place the Master's
word. Here is a confusion of ideas sufficiently indic-
ative of fraud ; and as the administration of the oaths
i^ always oral, and the very writing or printing them
was among the promises of the candidates never to
do, it is jiot surprising that thousands of Masons
should have lake!r~ttrem,' not only wMout under-
standing what they were swearing to, but actually
believing that their promise was to die like Hiram,
the victims of fidelity, and not, like his murderers, to
pay the penalties of treachery.

^-^n the promises themselves, however, there is
) nothing ambiguous or ecjuivocal. They positively

Srontract the engagement to suffer the penalties of

208

death and bodily mutilation, for any one violation of
the oaths which the candidate pronounces. The
death which a merciful man would not inflict upon a
dog, the Masonic candidate for lights swears he will
suffer as di penalty^ if he should pronounce the words
Tubal-Cain, Shibboleth or Mah-hah-bone out of time
and place. Nay, if like the abbess of Andouillets
and the nun in Tristram Shandy, they presume to
halve between them the obnoxious words, to pre-
serve the potency of the spell, without infringing the
laws of decorum — not even the syllables Ja — and
Chin, or Bo — and Az, can be halved between two
Masons, and publicly pronounced out of the lodge,
but upon the penalty of having both their throats
cut across from ear to ear. And this, and the like
of this, are the ancient landmarks, which the Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the United States have ear-
nestly exhorted the chapters and lodges under their
jurisdiction inflexibly to maintain,
-s Among the evidences of the true spirit and char-
acter of Freemasonry, which are daily disclosing
\ themselves to the world, is this fanatical attachment
I and devotion to these ancient landmarks, which
' might be more properly denominated these incurable
vices of the institution. To these vices how. em-
phatically may be applied the remark of the moral
poet, upon the propensity of human nature, to pass
from detestation of vice first seen, to the endur-

r

209

ance and tbence to the embrace of vice familiarized
to the eye ! If any one legislature of this Union
should enact a law, subjecting a citizen of these
States, for the most atrocious crime that the heart of
man could conceive or the arm of man could perpe-
trate, to any one of the Masonic penalties, one uni-
versal burst of indignation and abhorrence from the
Atlantic to the Rocky mountains w^ould redeem the
character of the American people from the disgrace
inflicted upon it by such a legislative enactment. I
hesitate not to declare the belief that not a jury
could be assembled in this Union to convict, not a
judge could be found to pass sentence upon, a man
subjected to such a punishment by the sovereign
legislatures of the land. And yet one of these pen-
alties has been inflicted on a free citizen of this
Union — inflicted by the execution to the letter, of
the secret, irresponsible, disavowed, and transcen-
dental law of Freemasonry. It has been executed
by Royal Arch Masons — executed by the band of
midnight and yet unpunished murder. The fact of
this murder has been communicated by one of its
perpetrators to an encampment of Knights Templars
in the city of New York, and those Knights Tem-
plars, under the seal of the fifth libation, instead of
delivering up the criminal to the lawful justice of
their country, did, in strict conformity to their Ma-
sonic obligations, screen him from the punishment

210

due to his crime, and furnish him with the means of
escaping from that punishment forever.

It is therefore, gentlemen, with unmingled satis-
faction, that I receive the assurance from you, that
the Antimasons of Vermont have determined to
persevere^ in the righteous cause in which they have
engaged — namely, that of breaking down the an-
cient landmarks of Freemasonry — landmarks which
are the standing monuments of usurpation and crime*
And whatever may be for years to come the fortunes
of your cause, perseverance alone is the infallible
pledge oi your final success. We must not flatter
ourselves that a moral evil so deeply rooted and of
such gigantic dimensions can or will be eradicated
in a short time, or by intermitted exertions. We
see the Masonic institution, covered with all its
enormities, upheld, by clinging to both the great
political parties which divide the nation. We see
the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States,
taking into consideration the condition of Masonry
in the State of Vermont, and pouring forth floods of
slander upon you and your associates, assertors of
the supremacy of the laws. But you and your
accusers are, in the presence of the American peo-
ple, alike amenable to the definitive tribunal of pub-
lic opinion. That opinion will ultimately settle into
a clear, simple, undeniable moral principle. The
code of ^^ Moloch homicide," embodied in the laws

211

of Freemasonry, will pass to its appropriate region
in Pandemonium, and one of the sources of error
and guilt prevailing in our land will be exhausted
and forever drained. For my feeble contributions
to effect this happy consummation, your approving
voice is to me a precious reward. As a fellow-
laborer with you for the extinction of the brutal
penalties of Freemasonry, my voice, so long as it
has power to speak, shall not be silent to an honest
call, and when silenced, as it soon must be, by a
summons to another world, my testimony of abhor-
rence to those penalties shall descend as an inher-
itance to my children and to my country.

Accept^ gentlemen, for yourselves, and for the
convention, whose resolutions you have communica-
ted to me, the respect and the thanks of your friend
and feUow-citizen,

JOHN ClUINC^ ADAM&

TO JAMES MOOREHEAD, ESQ,, Secretary of the MeadviUe
(Penn.) Antimasonic ConventioiL

Washington, 14 December, 1833.

Sir, — Your letter of the 30th of August last,
communicating to me a copy of the resolution of
thanks, from the Convention held at Meadville
on the 28th of that month, to my respected friend

212

Mr. Rush and mjself, for our services to the cause of
pure morals, against the institution of Freemasonry,
was received at my residence in Massachusetts, at a
time when I was absent from it. Circumstances
occurred immediately after my return, inducing me
to believe that there might be a propriety in defer-
ring for some time the acknowledgment of the
receipt of your letter, and the expression of my
grateful sensibility to the approbation of the Con-
vention declared by their resolution, coupled as it
was with a cheering exhortation to perseverance in
the cause.

Believing that perseverance — unremitted, undevi-
ating perseverance — is the only and the indispensa-
ble requisite, for securing the final, the complete and
most desirable triumph of the cause of Antimasonry,
I trust that so long as the faculty of reason, and the
sense of justice, shall be extended to me by the in-
dulgence of my Maker, I shall be found neither
indifferent nor recreant to the cause. That cause I
understand to be the abolition of the oaths, obliga-
tions and penalties administered and taken for ad-
mission to the general degrees of Freemasonry —
obscurely indicated by the mandate of the General
Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the United States,
held at Baltimore in November, 1832, to the chap-
ters and lodges under their jurisdiction ; indicated
with an injunction of adherence to them, under the

218

denomination of the Ancient Landmarks of the
Institution.

The total demolition of these ancient landmarks
I take to embrace the whole cause of Antimasonry
— and for the obvious reason, that they are en-
croachments upon the common rights, and invasions
of the common interests of the rest of mankind —
that they are impious, if not blasphemous invocations
of the name of God — that they are fraudulent pal-
terings with a double sense, saying one thing and
intending another — that they are brutalities of
thought and language, shameful to be uttered by the
lips of Christian men, and other objections to them
of no trifling consideration to those who believe that
the first inroads of corruption, consist in familiarizing
the mind to vicious thoughts, and the mouth to pol-
luted words : But it is the common rights and com-
mon interests of mankind, that are invaded by the
ancient landmarks of Freemasonry; and it is the
common interest of all, that they should be, as public
nuisances, abated.

And that they will be abated, depends upon per-
severance alone. As sure as the daily revolution of
the earth shall bring the source of light to ascend
from the east, so surely shall perseverance sweep
from the face of the earth, as common nuisances,
the ancient landmarks of Freemasonry. Nor is it
necessary to this result, that what is commonly

214

called political Antimasonm should be always, or
even geuerally successful. (^Political Antimasonry is
but one of the modes, though hitherto undoubtedly
the most efficacious one, of combating the Masonic
institution. It is one of the exceptions to this
mode of operation, that it necessarily manifests
Itself in the form of opposition to persons, and in
the shape of punishment. It enlists therefore
against itself, not only the whole body of Masonic
influence, but all the sympathies of friendship, and
all the weight of individual character and meritori-
ous service. Its success th.en must and will be
variable — fluctuating with the vicissitudes of tran-
sient popular opinion, and susceptible sometimes by
its failure of retarding, as at others by success it
may advance, the consummation devoutly to be
wished. But I trust it may be considered by Anti-
masons as only one of their weapons against the
common enemy — used with reluctance, and to be
laid aside whenever^Masonry herself shall be ban-
ished from the polls.y

At the same time I fervently hope that the
Antimasons of the free States of this Union will
not be satisfied with the mere cessation of the
meetings of Lodges, Chapters and Encampments ;
\ nor become indifferent to the cause, even when
justice shall require of them to discard the question
from the field of election. There is no question

216

but that the Masonic oaths are all unlawful. But
as in most of the States there is no specific penalty
annexed to the administration of extra-judicial
oaths, the law itself is outraged by it with impunity.
In the Statesjof Rhode . Island, and Vermont, stat-
utes have recently been enacted, annexing adequate
penalties to the administration of extra-judicial
oaths ; so that in those States Masonry will no
longer have the subterfuge to plead that her oaths
are not unlawful, because they are null and void.
If I am to credit the newspapers, there has been a
decision amounting to this, even by magistrates
upon the bench in your State of Pennsylvania.
Those magistrates, it is stated, were, all but one,
themselves Masons ; and if I understand the writ-
ten opinion, reported as having been given by them,
it was that without deciding whether the Masonic
oaths were not lawful, they held them to be volun-
tary promises, which could have no operation con-
trary to law, and therefore that a man who had
taken those oaths was quite competent to be an
impartial juror between Mason and Anti mason.
Now, although there is much ingenuity in this argu-
ment, and in the conclusion drawn from it, there is
another conclusion to which it may lead other minds
unilluminated with the floods of light which pour
upon the pilgrim of the lodge room. If there were
specific penalties annexed to the administration of

216

all extra-judicial oaths. Masonic judges would be
relieved from all judicial non-committal, whether
the Masonic oaths are lawful or not, and it would
require one step further of Masonic co-operation on
the Bench, to decide that a man bound by unlawful
oaths, exclusively to favor one of the parties to a
suit of law, is a very impartial juror between those
parties, because the oaths he has taken, exclusively
to favor one of them, are unlawful.

Sir, I wish the members of the Convention who
did me the honor to pass the Resolution which you
have communicated to me, to accept my thanks,
\ and a hearty reciprocation with them of the Anti-
masonic pass-word, '* Persevere," It is the un-
conquerable spirit of all energetic Virtue — the
impregnable fortress, founded upon the Rock of

Ages.

I am, with great respect,

Your friend and fellow citizen,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMa

217

TO R. W. MIDDLETON, GETTYSBURG, PA.

Quincy, 27 October, 1835.

Dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the
19tb instant, with the Star and Republican Banner
of the same date. Amidst the vicissitudes of alter-
nate success and defeat, which in a very remarkable
manner have attended the cause of political Anti-
maspnry, I have witnessed, with warm feelings of
sympathy and of admiration, the Perseverance with
which it has been pursued in Pennsylvania, through
good and evil fortune, to its signal triumph at this
time, in the election of Mr. Ritner as Governor of
the Commonwealth, and if I am to credit the public
journals, of a decided majority of avowed Anti-
masons to the Legislature.

Hitherto, the Antimasons of Pennsylvania, though
armed with a principle as pure as any that ever
animated the heart of man ; though struggling
against an Institution foul with midnight murder,
perpetrated in strict conformity to soul-ensnaring
oaths and obligations, have yet been a feeble and
persecuted minority — persecuted for uttering the
cry of indignation at a series of atrocious violations
of the laws of God and man — persecuted, for nfum-
moning the energies of virtue in the hearts of their

88

218

fellow-citizens, to extinguish a secret and lawless
conspiracy in the heart of the community against
the equal rights of their fellow-men.

I trust the days of this persecution are past in
Pennsylvania — that the Government of that Com-
mon weahh, by the will of a decisive majority of its
people, will be in the hands of Antimasons, and
that by the wisdom and moderation of their meas-
ures, they will redeem the State from the pollution
of Masonic morals, and restore in triumph the
supremacy of the laws.

I am, with great respect. Dear Sir,

Your obedient servants

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

219

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OP MASSACHUSETTS.

Iir the autumn of the year 1833, Mr. Adams was unanimously nomi-
nated at a large Convention of members of the Antimasonic party, a
candidate for the office of Governor of Massachusetts. The call thus
made upon him, he did not feel at liberty to decline. The result was
a triangular contest at the election, between the three political parties
into which the people were divided, and the failure of a choice of
Governor by the requisite majority. According to the provisions of
the Constitution of Massachusetts, the election then devolved upon
the Legislature about to meet in January, 1834. But no sooner was
Mr. Adams made aware of the state of the popular vote, than he
determined to decline to be further considered a candidate for the
post The reasons for his course as well in accepting at first as in
withdrawing afterwards, he decided to submit in an Address to the
people of the Commonwealth, which he caused to be published at tlie
flame time that he notified his decision in a letter directed to the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, at the opening of the ses-
sion. The following is the Address.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OP
MASSACHUSETTS.

Fellow Citizens : — For the first time within
nearly half a century, you have been so far unable
to agree upon the person to whom the office of
serving you in the capacity of your Chief Magistrate,
should be committed for the ensuing year, that no
one of the candidates presented by previous nomina-

220

tions to your favor has obtained a majority of your
suffrages^ and the case has occurred, in which, by
the provisions of the Constitution, your House of
Representatives will be called to present to your
Senate two of the four citizens, having the highest
number of your votes, and of these two, the Senate
will be charged with selecting one, as the Governor
of the State.

Of the four candidates, having the highest num-
ber of votes, my name stands the second, and
supposing it from that circumstance probable, that
it might be one of the two offered by the House of
Representatives for the choice of the Senate, I have
deemed it my duty to withdraw from the Canvass,
and to request the members of the House of Rep-
resentatives to withhold their votes from me, with
the assurance of my determination, founded on the
sense of my own duties, not to accept the appoint-
ment, should it be conferred upon me.

I have not thought it necessary or proper to
'^assign to the Legislature the reasons which have
brought me to this determination. For the exercise
of their functions it was only necessary that they
should know the fact, and it would have been an
unwarrantable consumption of their time, which is
your property, to lay before them an exposition of
motives, upon the correctness of which it would
not be their province to decide, and which would

221

neither require nor admit of any deliberative action
appropriate to them.

This exposition of motives is, however, peculiarly
due to that portion of my fellow-citizens, who hon-
ored me by their nomination, and whose nomination
I accepted. It is also due to you all ; all having
an interest in the issue of the election; and \aTl_
being entitled to know, wherefore I have felt it
justifiable to interpose between the provision of the
Constitution prescribed for the contingency which
has occurred, and its absolute execution.

In accepting the nomination of the Antimasonic
Convention at Boston, I was aware of the dissen-
sions which agitated the Commonwealth, and which
I had witnessed with deep concern. I knew that
the Anti masons as a party constituted a minority ^
of the people of the Commonwealth. That they^
were for the most part a detachment from that ^^
portion of the people, who, in recent times had
been denominated National Republicans, and who
under that denomination had embraced at least
three-fourths of the people of the State. That
their views of general policy, both with regard to
the administration of the General Government, and
to that of the Commonwealth, still coincided with
those of that party, and I believed it an object of
the highest importance to your welfare, and most
especially with reference to your interest and influ-

222

ence in the affairs of the Union, that this breach
should be repaired, and this discord restored to
harmony. (^ The Masonic controversy was the only
point upon which the two divisions of the party
were separated, but that separation I feared was
irreconcileable. The party in opposition to the
State Government, and friendly to the present
federal administration, was necessarily Masonic, by
adherence to their chief; himself illustrious with
Masonic acquirements and dignitiesy The National
Republicans were Masonic, by the declared adher-
ence of their Chief to the same institution of which
he was a distinguished member, and indications
were not wanting that all the differences of princi-
ple between those two parties, ardent and bitter as
they were, would be swallowed up, in the transcen-
dent common interest of Freemasonry. So it had
emphatically proved in the State of Vermont^ and
such was, in my apprehension, likely to be the issue
in Massachusetts. It was with extreme reluctance
that I consented to be placed within the wind of
this commotion, for I saw that it would bring me in
collision with the party then still wielding the power

! of the State, and with whose general principles and

. policy my own were in full accord.
^ I had recently been re-elected, by the co-opera-
tion of that party, in the Congressional district
where I reside, to a seat in the House of Represen-

223

tatives of the United States. I had previously
been nominated by a Convention of the members
of that party, as well as by an Antimasonic, and ^^
also a Republican Convention, to represent the
District of Plymouth in the last Congress. At the
expiration of that term of service, I was again
nominated by an Antimasonic, and also by a Nation- .
al Republican Convention, to represent the District
as newly constituted in the Congress now assem-
bled. Those nominations were both accompanied
with Resolutions, approving in the strongest and
most gratifying terms, the manner in which I had
executed the trust of representing Plymouth Dis-
trict; and although the District, as newly organized,
was but partly the same with that which I had
before represented, I was re-elected by a majority
equally decisive with that of my previous elec-
tion.

I had freely avowed my opinions of Masonry and
Antimasonry, when the people of the District
selected me to represent them in Congress. They
were not the opinions of a majority of the people
whona I was to represent, and they were sustained
by a very small, though highly respectable minority
of the people of the Commonwealth. They were^
unpopular opinions, and therefore not the ground to \
be occupied by persons aspiring to popularity, or to !
its rewards.

224

The Legislator of the most illustrious Democracy
of ancient times, Solon, made it a crime, punishable
ith death, for any citizen to shrink from taking
/his side upon any great political question, which
agitated and divided the people. Without approving
\ the severity of this law, I consider the principle of
(_its obligation as the vital spirit of Republicanism,
/^llepublican government is essentially the govern-
\ ment of public opinion, and it is good or bad gov-
I ernment, in proportion as public opinion is right or
Lwrong. Public_fipinion is the aggregate of individ*
ual opinions, and the Constitution, which secures to
the citizen the right^o£_50/in^, makes it his duty
to form opinions by which the exercise of that right
shairbe governed. Every vote is an opinion mani-
fested by free action, and whoever votes contrary to
his opinion, or shrinks from the avowal of the
/ opinion upon which he votes, is actuated by no
Republican spirit, /in forming his political opinions *
every citizen must be governed by his own honest
judgment, enlightened by consultation with others,
and by such measure of information as he can obtain^v
But as this measure of information must necessa-
rily be possessed by different persons in different
degrees, the opinions of every individual must, in
great multitudes of cases, be influenced by his con-
fidence in others. ^/To obtain the information neces-
sary for forming a correct opinion upon political

226

questions is a duty specially incumbeDt upon those
who possess in any degree the public confidenceT^
and haying been one of those honored with the
confidence of a large portion of my Fellow Citizens,
I have thought it my indispensable duty to make
myself acquainted with the facts and the principles
involved in the controversy relating to the Masonic
Institution.

^The authentication of the facts, and the devel-
opment of principles resulting from them, was
necessarily slow and gradual. The struggle be-
tween the common rights of the people, and the
exclusive privileges of an oath-bound association,
organized for extensive secretly concerted action,
has been long protracted, and there is no present
prospect of its termination. The kidnapping and
murder of William Morgan, for merely avowing the
intention to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry, was
the first act which roused the attention of the
people to the nature and character of this Institu-
tion. In the transaction of that tragedy, nine or
ten of the most atrocious crimes that can be com-
mitted by men, were perpetrated, by deeds to
which several hundreds of men were accessory-
men not of the class of criminals instigated to
guilt by poverty, ignorance, or ferocious individual
passions, but men in the educated and influential
conditions of life, many of them men in all their

29

<^r

226

other relations to society, of exemplary lives and
conversation.

At the time of the murder of Morgan I was exer-
cising the office of President of the United States.
Neither the penalties of Freemasonry, nor the prac*
tical execution of them, by the Masons who mur-
dered him, were known to the public in genera],
nor to me. Freemasonry exercised an absolute
control over all the public journals edited by mem-
bers €>f the Institution, and over many others by
terror and intimidation. Months and years elapsed
before the murder itself was fully proved — nor has
it been judicially proved to this day. The names
indeed of the men who took him from his dungeon
on the 19th of September, 1826, and closed a tor-
ture of nine days' duration by sinking him in the
middle of Niagara river, are perfectly well known.
It is known that one of them was, according to
Masonic law, upon avowal of his crime under the
seal of the fifth libation, and under hot pursuit Jby
the officers of justice, furnished by an Encampment
of Knights Templars in the city of New York, with
the means of escaping from this country. But the
witnesses to all these transactions are Freemasons—
and as accessories to the crimes of which they are
cognizant, refuse or evade giving judicial testimony,
on the express ground that they might thereby crim-
inate themselves. There are clouds of witnesses,

227

but they are participators in the guilt, and thus it is
that Masonry protects itself from the judicial authen-
tication of its crimes, by the very multitude of its
accomplices, all bound by the invisible chains of
secrecy.

But the trials of the Masonic outrages in the
State of New York have exhibited other expositions
of Masonic law. Masonic juries have been packed
by Masonic sheriffs, for the express purpose not
only of screening the guilty from punishment, but
of falsifying the facts by presentments and verdicts
known to themselves to be untrue. Masonic wit-
nesses have refused to testify, and suffered impris-
onment rather than disclose the facts known to
them, even when they did not criminate themselves.
Nor is this all. When conscience, bursting the
bands of Masonry, has constrained Masonic wit-
nesses to testify to crimes in which they themselves
shared, and to the secrets of the craft, solitary
Masonic jurors have refused their assent to verdicts,
upon which all their fellows were agreed, on the
avowed resolution that they would not believe any
testimony of a seceding Mason.

The extent to which the public justice of the
country had been bafiSed, and the morals of the
people vitiated by Freemasonry, was therefore dis-
closed to me gradually, and by a slow process of
time. Absorbed by other cares, and with time

228

engrossed by the discharge of other duties, I was
for years very imperfectly informed either of the
laws of Masonry, or of the ascendency they were
maintaining over the laws of the laud, or of the
deep depravity with which they were cankering the
morals of the people. Morgan's book was not
published till some months after his death — and
when published, the Masonic presses long labored
in their double vocation of suppressing truth and
propagating falsehood, by representing the dis*
closures of that book as false. Yet Morgan had
revealed the secrets only of the first degrees, and
the deepest of Masonic abominations were yet
screened from the public eye. It was not until the
4th of July, 1828, that the Convention of seceding
Masons, held at Le Roy, made public the secrets,
oaths, obligations and penalties of the higher
degrees — nor were the proceedings of that Conven-
tion made known to me till I found them in David
Bernard's. Li^hLon^ Masonry.

To that book, and its author, permit me, my
fellow-citizens, while recommending it to your
perusal and meditation, to offer the tribute of un-
feigned respect — a tribute the more richly deserved,
for the slanders which Masonic benevolence and
charity have showered upon them. Elder David
Bernard was a minister of the Genesee Baptist
Association in the State of New York. He was a

229

man of good repute, and of blameless life and con-
versation. Like many others, he was ensnared into
the taking of fifteen degrees of Masonry, and was
the intimate Secretary of the Lodge of Perfection.
He was one of the first seceders from the order,
and from that time underwent every possible per-
secution from Masons, and the frequent danger of
his life. Among the most interesting documents
demonstrating the true spirit of Masonry, which
have appeared in the course of this controversy, is
the plain and unaflfected narrative of the treatment
which he received, and of the scenes which he
witnessed at the meetings of Lodges and Chapters,
before the murder of Morgan, as well as after, from
the time when it was projected in them. That it
was so projected is established by his testimony,
confirmatory of numerous other demonstrated facts.

To David Bernard perhaps more than to any
other man, the world is indebted for the revelation
of the most execrable mysteries of Masonry — nor
could he, as a minister of the word of God, have
performed a service to his country and his fellow
Christians, more suitable to his sacred functions. It
was principally by his exertions that the Le Roy
Convention of seceding Masons assembled and
published the oaths, obligations and penalties of the
higher degrees of the order.

From the time of that publication, the whole

230

system of the Masonic laws, and their practical
operation, having relation to the disclosure of their
secrets, have been gradually unfolding themselves,
and the law and its execution have been continual
commentaries upon each other. When the murder
of Morgan was first perpetrated, the instances were
frequent of its being openly justified by members of
the Institution, as being but the execution of a
penalty^ to which he himself had assented — ^as it
certainly was. Another class of Masons^ somewhat
less resolute, contented themselves with maintaining
that he was a perjured wretch for violating his
oaths, and if he had been put to death had only
suffered what he deserved. A third class sturdily
denied the facts even after every thing but the last
act of murder had been proved in regular judicial
trials; and a fourth, intrenching themselves in
ignorance, which they took care always to preserve,
by turning away their eyes from all evidence of the
facts, rested their defence from the charge of Mor-
gan's murder by professing that they knew nothing
about it.

From the time when I first perused Elder Ber-
nard's book, I became convinced that it was impos-
sible for me to discharge my duties, as a citizen, to
my country, by knowing nothing about it. By a
constant comparison of the laws of Masonry with
their practical execution, from the robbery of Mor-

231

gan's manuscripts, and the abortive attempt to burn
Miller's house, to the escape of Richard Howard
from justice and from this country, a great multitude
of facts combined to demonstrate the pervading
efficacy of all the Masonic obligations. Measures
always enfeebled and thwarted by Masonic influ-
ence, were taken by the Legislature and Executive
of the State of New York, to detect and bring the
offenders to justice. The trials of the criminals
were in progress — I endeavored to obtain informa-
tion of their course and termination. The letters
of Col. Stone, upon Masonry and Antimasonry,
were addressed to me, in consequence of inquiries
made by me, to another person, and communicated
to him. With regard to the facts ascertained by
those trials, the reports made to the Legislature of
New York, and the proceedings of the first Anti-
masonic Convention, held at Philadelphia, with the
Essays of William Slade upon the Masonic Pen-
alties, and the defence of Masonry by the Grand
Lodge of Rhode Island, all concurred in furnishing
a mass of information from which my conclusions
were deduced.

I saw a code of Masonic Legislation^ ddiipteA.W
prostrate every principle of equal justice, and to
corrupt every sentiment of virtuous feeling in the
soul of him who bound his allegiance to it. I saw
the practice of common honesty, the kindness of

^

232

Christian benevolence, even the abstinence from
atrocious crimes, limited exclusively, by lawless
oaths, and barbarous penalties, to the social relations
between the brotherhood of the Craft. I saw
slander organized into a secret, wide-spread and
affiliated agency, fixing its invisible fangs into the
hearts of its victims, sheltered by the darkness of
the lodge-room, and armed with the never-ceasing
penalties of death. I saw self-invoked imprecations
of throats cut from ear to ear, of heart and vitals
torn out and cast forth to the wolves and vultures,
of skulls smitten off, and hung on spires. I saw
wine drank from a human skull with solemn invo-
cation of all the sins of its owner upon the head of
him who drinks from it. And I saw a wretched
mortal man dooming himself to eternal punishment
(when the last trump shall sound) as a guarantee
for idle and ridiculous promises. Such are the laws
of Masonry, such their indelible character, and with
that character perfectly corresponded the history of
the abduction and murder of Morgan, and the his-
tory of Masonic lodges, chapters, and encampments,
from that day to the present.

To this general assertion, numerous exceptions
must be made, not only of individual Masons, but
of whole lodges and chapters. I wish I could say
of encampments, which have surrendered their
Masonic charters, or silently dissolved themselves.

233

Other lodges and chapters have ceased to hold their
meetings, and I have heard of yet others, which
still holding their meetings, have ceased to admin-
ister any of the oaths. Besides these, there are
numbers of individual Masons, who have silently
seceded and withdrawn from the Institution without
renouncing it. It is probable that these exceptions
include one third of all the Masons in the free States
of this Union ; and to them, no observation of cen-
sure which I have made upon Masonry or upon
Masons, can apply. Their bearing is only upon
adhering Masons and Masonry.

But of that censure, the Grand Encampment, the
Grand Chapter, and Grand Lodge of New York
must take their full share. Their opinion of the
laws of Masonry, and of their true exposition, is the
same as mine. They have proved it by their deeds.
They knew that the kidnappers and assassins of
Morgan, the robbers of his manuscripts, the slan-
derers who falsely charged him with larceny to
seize upon his person and accomplish his destruc-
tion, the incendiaries of the house of Miller ; that
the sheriflfs who packed Masonic juries, the juries
who falsified their verdicts, the witnesses who
refused to testify, or deliberately testified to false-
hood ; they knew that all these had but acted in
strict conformity and faithful obedience to the letter
and the spirit of the Masonic laws. So well did

234

thej know it, that far from expelling any one of
these criminals from the fraternity, they have hailed
and recognized them as worthy brothers of the
craft, have cheered them with consolation in their
sufferings, indemnified them with money for their
imprisonment, and spirited away one at least of the
ruffians, whose hands were reeking with the blood
of murder, from the public justice of their country.
All this, fellow citizens, have I seen, through a
succession of lime, now extending to more than
seven years. /To inform myself of the facts I
deemed a duty of paramount obligation upon me,
as a man, a citizen, and a Christian ; especially
after my release from the arduous duties of public
office./ Had I been actuated by no other motives
than sympathy with the feelings of my own imme-
diate neighborhood and friends, I trust they would
have needed no apology. It happened that the
attention of the inhabitants of my native town of
Quincy, had been drawn to the facts of the Morgan
tragedy and of the laws c^ Masonry, years before I
came to reside among them. There is a Masonic
I Lodge in that town, and many of its members are
among the worthiest and most respected citizens of
the place. Several of them are my personal friends
and kinsmen. When the Masonic controversy first
made its way into this Commonwealth, the people
of that town were among the first who became

235

acquainted with the Masonic laws as thej were
divulged, and with the Masonic crimes in New
York, their natural progeny. A large majority of
them became Antimasons, and so I found them upon
my return among them. The spirit of Antimasonry
had already pervaded the counties of Norfolk,
Plymouth, and Bristol; and the secession of the
Rev. Moses Thacher, and the controversies, ecclesi-
astical and political, in which that step had involved
him, occasioned much agitation among this portion
of the people in the Commonwealth.

In these dissensions I took no part ; but I should
have been insensible to all my duties, had I closed
my eyes to facts or turned my ear from argument,
and smothered the sense of justice in my soul, for
the privilege of blinking the public question, which
was convulsing the neighborhood in which I lived,
by professing to know nothing about it.

Yet I did not intrude myself as a volunteer in the
^y^ontroversy. It had been erroneously stated in a
newspaper, edited by a high Masonic dignitary in
Boston, that I was a Mason. In answer to an
inquiry from a person in New York, whether I was
so, I had declared that / was not^ and never should
be. fXhis letter, without my knowledge or consent,
crept into the public pints ; and from that day the
revenge of Masonic charity^ from Maine to Louisi-
ana (I speak to the letter) marked me for its own.

236

At the critical moment of the Presidential election,
in the counties of New York where Antimasonry
was most prevailing, a hand-bill was profusely cir-
culated, with a deposition upon oath, attested by a
Masonic magistrate, of an individual, real or ficti-
tious, swearing that he had been present at two
different times (the dates of which were specified)
with me at meetings of a Masonic Lodge at Pitts-
field, — a town, in \vhich I had never entered a
house in my life.

This was the first punishment inflicted upon me
by Masonic law, for declaring that I never should
be a Mason« The influence of Masonry upon that
Presidential election was otherwise exerted with
considerable efiect ; and of the more recent election
it decided, perhaps, the fate. I never noticed either
the false annunciation in the Boston Centinel that I
was a Mason, or the oath of the worthy brother of
the Square and Compass, that he had twice met me
at the Lodge in Pittsfield. They were both calum-
nies, as strictly conformable to Masonic laws as to
Masonic benevolence, and have been followed up
by slanders coined at the same mint, and circulated
through all the fraternizing presses of the land.

I have stated to you, fellow citizens, the reasons
and motives which have actuated me in the part
that I have taken in the Masonic and Antimasonic
controversy. To obtain an accurate knowledge of

237

the facts, and of the real laws of Freemasonry,
and to bring them to the test of pure moral princi*
pies, I believed to be my indispensable duty, and
having done that, it was no less my duty to bear
my testimony on every suitable occasion both to
facts and principles.

CoK Stone's Letters contained an exposition of
Masonic law, from a Knight Templar, who had
withdrawn, but not seceded from the order — an
exposition as favorable as the hand of a friend could
make it, consistently with the candor of truth. It
was palliative, excusatory, apologetical, for Masonry
in its fairest colors ; and it first put forth the avow-
al, that the Masonic obligations were not among the
secrets of Masonry. This was a point upon which
the most eminent dignitaries of the craft differed
among themselves ; but in the mean time, the
obligations were kept secret. They never had been
divulged till the publication of Morgan's book since
the forgotten revelations of Jachin and Boaz, the
author of which is understood to have sufiered the
same fate as Morgan.

Col. Stone gave the original oath, obligation, and
penalty, the only one taken at, and long after the
primitive institution of the order. He also referred
in his book to a manuscript of the oaths, obligations,
and penalties, of the first seven degrees, including
the Royal Arch, as they have generally been admin-

238

iitered in the Lodges and Chapters of New Eng-
land ; and he afterwards, at my request, transmitted
to me the manuscript, which is now in my posses*
sion. It is a complete, though abridged, summary
of Masonic law to the degree of Royal Arch ; and
the volume of Col. Stone gives the fair and full
history of the execution of that law, in its conflict
of five years with the sovereign authority of the
State of New York.

In those letters Col. Stone had also referred to an

opinion, previously expressed by me to him in

conversation, that the first step in Freemasonry, the

initiatory rite, the Entered Apprentice's Oath, was

vicious, immoral, and unlawful. By this publication

of my opinion, which I had not authorized, but to

which I could have no objection, I felt myself called

upon to expose, by a strict analysis of the Entered

Apprentice's oath, the reasons upon which I had

passed that summary sentence of condemnation

upon it. I addressed therefore to Col. Stone, for

publication in the paper of which he is a joint

/editor in New York, the four Letters on the Enter-

/ ed Apprentice's Oath, which have since been exten-

[ sively circulated, but which, such is the power of

Masonry over the periodical press, it required no

small exertion of fortitude and intrepidity in him to

publish.

I shortly afterwards received from Benjamin

239

Cowell, a citizen of Rhode Island, a letter, asking
my opinion in what manner this vicious and immor-
al institution could most effectively be put down.
In my answer to him, I suggested two obvious
modes of effecting that object. The one, that the
Masons themselves should abolish or cease to admin-
bter the oaths, obligations, and penalties ; and the
other, that the administration of them should be
prohibited under adequate penalties by legislative
enactment in the several States.

That they should be voluntarily abandoned by
the Masons themselves, was my first wish, because
that would have been a meritorious act, — an act
now sanctioned by the example of the Lodge of my
own constituents at Plymouth, to the members of
which I tender hereby my warmest thanks, and
which, if followed by all the Lodges, will, I have
no doubt, (as it should,) put down all political Anti-
masonry within the Commonwealth forever. But
the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the
United States, at a meeting held at Baltimore, had
just issued an edict, forbidding this voluntary con-
summation ; and there were numerous other indica-
tions, that however multitudes of individual Masons,
Lodges, and Chapters, were disposed to yield to
the voice of reason, of religion, and of law, and to
cease from the further administration of their hid-
eous vows, this was not the temper, or intention of

240

the high and leading members of the Institution ;
and it was apparent that the principle of subordina-
tion, so essentially woven into the texture of the
order, would deter most of the inferior and affiliated
associations of the fraternity from breaking their
fetters and dissolving their bands. I believed,
therefore, that the aid of legislative prohibition with
penalties, would be indispensable for abating this
moral nuisance in the community; and I recom-
mended that the administration of the Masonic
oaths should be prohibited by law, upon penalties of
fine, and imprisonment, adequate to deter from the
administration of them in future.

I take this occasion, fellow citizens, to justify
myself before you from an aspersion, which the
Committee of the Convention of National Repub-
licans at Worcester, (who resolved that their party
must be a majority of the people, not only of the
Commonwealth, but of the Union,) did not disdain,
in their zeal, to make that majority cast upon me
in their Address to you. The Committee assured
you that Antimasonry was not a proper ground for
political controversy, and as it did not suit their pur-
poses fairly to state to you the real question between
Masonry and Antimasonry, they presented you a
fictitious one, invented in the lodge room, and
adopted by them as their own. They told you that
Antimasonry was a persecuting spirit, the object of

241

which was to deprive Freemasons of their rights ;
and by quoting with inverted commas, a passage of
my letter to Mr. Co well, they perverted it into an
assertion that I had recommended a law to punish
men with " fine and imprisonment '' for being
Masons. I recommended no such thing ; but as I
know that some of the members of the Committee
who signed that Address have learned to read, and
as some of them may peradventure in times past
have professed to be my friends, I take the liberty
of a friend in recommending to them, the next time
they shall be charged with addressing you, in behalf
of a party which must have a majority, to respect
yoUj if they will not respect themselves. To respect
you, by abstaining from the slander of a political
adversary, not less by a palpable misrepresentation
than by wilful falsehood.

I have great satisfaction in observing that within
two months after the publication of the extracts of
my letter to Mr. Cowell, the legislature of Rhode
Island did, with great unanimity, enact a law pro-
hibiting the administration of extra-judicial oaths,
upon penalties of fine and political disfranchisement,
which last is rather more severe, but more appropri-
ate to the offence, than that which I had proposed.
It is to be presumed that while that law remains in
force, the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of
the United States, which is to meet again at the

81

242

City of Washington in December, 1835, will not
again enjoin upon the Chapters and Lodges under
their jurisdiction, at least within the State of Rhode
hlandj a rigid adherence to the ancient landmarks
of the Order ; that is, to these very extra-judicial
oaths. They will, I trust, abstain also from repeat-
ing the same injunction to the Chapters and Lodges
in the State of Vermont, where a similar law, prohib-
iting in substance the administration of the Masonic
oaths, has lately been enacted. It happens that these
san^ two States of Rhode Island and Vermont, are
the identical States in which the Report of the Com-
mittee of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of
the United States, affirmed that Masonry had trium-
phantly sustained itself, and with regard to Rhode
Island that it had been sustained by the Legislature.
Fellow citizens, I indulge the hope that before
the next meeting of the General Grand Royal Arch
Chapter of the United States, your statute book
will present for their consideration, the same dispo-
sal of the ^^ ancient landmarks " of Freemasonry.
For when you shall have set your seal of reproba-
tion upon those abominable appeals to the name of
God, those atrocious obligations, those butchering
and blasphemous penalties, and when the Freema-
sons of your Commonwealth shall submit to your
will, in this enactment, Antimasonry within your
borders will be extinct^-mine at. least will ''die

243

j away." There is not a Freemason in the State, to
/ whom I bear personally a particle of ill will-

.' There are many for whom I entertain a warm and

cordial friendship, even of those who have declared
to you that Freemasonry knows no penalty beyond
admonition, suspension and expulsion. I am willing
to believe that they did not understand, so well as
the murderers of Morgan, the oaths they had taken;
Even of those who have been slandering me with-
out measure and without stint, I am ready to allow
that they are only fulfilling their Masonic obligations,
and following their vocation^ and that they have the
example of my friends of the National Republican
^Worcester Convention Committee, to sustain them.
Whatever of evil there is in Antimasonry is but an
aggravation of the sins of Masonry herself.

I am aware of the objections to what is called
political Antimasonry, which have hitherto deterred
a large majority of you from resorting to it as an
extinguisher to the baleful light of Freemasonry.
One of the most fascinating allurements of the
*' Handmaid " has been her influence in promoting
the political advancement of the brethren of the
Craft. Silent and secret in her operations, she
raised them with invisible hand to place and power,
and one of the first discoveries made by Antima- ^
sonry was, that three-fourths of all the offices
within the range of the cable-tow were occupied by

244

MasoDS. This had become in fact the great and
absorbing employment of lodge, chapter, encamp-
ment and consistory ; not while the Tyler with
drawn sword was at the door — not while the Mas-
ter, Grand Master, High Priest, or Illustrious Sir
Knight was reading lessons of benevolence and
charity, from the pages of Holy Writ — not while
the slip-shod, hoodwinked, haltered, poor blind pil-
grim was perambulating the lodge with pointed
dagger at his breast, in search of light — not even
in the passage from labor to refreshment, nor in the
choruses of Masonic minstrelsy, so congenial to that
decent mimicry of the ineffable Jehovah in the
burning bush. All these were but the types and
shadows of what was to come — all this was but the
outward shell to the kernel of Masonic brother-
hood. I The principle of preference established by
the Masonic code of politics, was, that a brother of
the craft was to be preferred to any other of equal
qualifications. It was the odd trick of the game,
and it shufiled all the honors into the hands of the
Masonic partner.)

This statute of Masonic law was in the year
1816 promulgated under the seal of the compass
and square, by a Master Mason in the Boston Cen-
tinel, the same paper which afterwards so vera-
dously declared me to be a member of the order.
Little attention was paid to this political pass-word

246

at the time. It was takea for a mere common
electioneering paragraph. Its operation was neither
seen nor suspected. The obligation had not then
been sharpened into a positive promise upon oath,
clinched as usual with the penalty of death ; but as
a general portion of the law of exclusive favor to
the brethren of the craft, operating unseen, and
visible even in its effects only to the initiated ; it
was as it always must be, a conspiracy of the few
against the equal rights of the many ; anti-republi-
can in its sap, from the fruit blushing at the summit
of the plant to the deepest fibre of its root.

It was, perhaps, this monopoly of public office,
by the Masonic guide to the ballot box, which first
suggested to the Antimasonic party, the expedient
of counteracting its effects by adopting the same
principle and reversing its application. It needed
nothing more. If the Mason was bound, between
candidates of equal qualifications, to prefer the
brother of the craft, the Antimason was but turning
upon him his own tables, in giving the same pref-
erence to the brother Antimason. Yet this is the
principle openly avowed as a fundamental law of the
Masonic fraternity, but which turned upon them-
selves, raises an universal outcry of proscription,
disfranchisement and persecution.

Fellow citizens, there is in my mind an objection
to the principle itself. 1 It is but a modification of

246

the selfish, intolerant and exclusive principle of party
spirit. In the Masonic code and practice it has the
additional vice of secret operation. / When Antima-
sonry first raised its head in New York, it found
three fourths of all the elective offices in the State
in the hands of Masons. The proportion of Masons
to the whole population was not one fiftieth part.
How is it with you now ? Look to the delegation
from your city in your House of Representatives.
Boston, to speak in round numbers, has ten thou-
sand citizens qualified by your constitution and laws
to serve as Representatives in the General Court ;
of these ten thousand, one thousand may be
Masons. Boston had last year sixty-three members
in the House. Of these, by relative proportion of
numbers, there should have been six, or at most
seven Masons. How many were there? Nearly
thirty. Of the number this Year elected, the Ma-
sonic proportion is not less. / Here are then nine
thousand citizens of Boston, qualified to serve as
Representatives in the Legislature, virtually dis-
franchised, that is, deprived of the enjoyment of
their rights, by the preference of brother Masons
over others of equal qualifications, and the exclu-
sive selection of Masons to fill the seats, the access
to which ought, by your constitution and laws, to be
enjoyed equally by alhj

Look to the delegation in your Senate from the

247

county of Worcester, the very throne of Masonry
in the Commonwealth. There are in that county
say ten thousand citizens eligible to the Senate.
One tenth of that number may be Masons — one
member in the Senate would be more than their
fair proportion of the representation. They have
five out of six. Now if the Freemasons of Wor-
cester county were, like the Patricians of ancient
Rome in her early days, an order of nobility,
exclusively eligible to seats in the Senate, what
would be the difference of the result from that
which is here effected, by the Masonic preference of
a brother of the craft over others of equal qualifi-
cations ?

I shall not now inquire what influence this com-
bined action of Masonic agency, by the united nu-
meric power of the city of Boston and the county of
Worcester in your legislative councils, has, and must
have over the administration and policy of the whole
Commonwealth. Its power will be pre-eminently
conspicuous in the proceedings of your legislature*
I only invite your attentive observation of its effects.
Watch the movements of your General Court,
especially upon every subject connected with the
supremacy of Masonry, and observe the issues, as
they may affect your own interests, of the Masonic
sympathies between the delegations firom the city of
Boston and the county of Worcester.

248

^^ The preference at elections, of Antitnasons for

/ candidates of their own opinions, is nothing more

^ than the application of the Masonic rule and prac-

/ tice of electioneering to themselves. It is only jus-

^^ifiable as a defensive„ineasure, and as a means^ of"

counteracting the rapacious grasp of Masonry at all

the offices of the land.

In my letter to Mr. Cowell, I did not express my
approbation of political Antimasonry even to the
whole of this extent. I confined my approbation
to the elections of members to the State Legisla-
tures ; and to them, only until statutes prohibiting
with adequate penalties the administration of
Masonic oaths should be enacted. The Legisla-
tures of Rhode Island and Vermont have enacted
such statutes, and if the Masons in those two States
submit to them, Masonry within them must ulti-
mately die, as corporations are extinguished, by the
death of all their members.

A far manlier and mere honorable course would
be that proposed by Samuel Elliot, a Royal Arch
Mason, of Vermont, a stranger to me, but a man
who deserves well of his country, who had the
intrepidity to call upon his brethren and companions
of the order to yield to the unequivocal voice and
wishes of their fellow citizens ; to lay down their
childish pageants and preposterous dignities ; to
cast away their paper crowns and lackered sceptres;

249

their globe and cross-crowned mitres, and their
harlequin wooden swords of knighthood ; and to
emerge from the tawdry honors of Grand Kings
and High Priests, and Princes of the Royal Secret,
and resume the plain, unembroidered, laceless, but
comfortable and decent garb of Republican citizens.
This proposition was indeed perilous to him who
made it, and the floodgates of slander, according
to the ancient usages of the order, were immedi-
ately opened upon him. But it was regularly con-
sidered and debated at a meeting of the Grand
Lodge of Vermont, at which were present one
hundred and twenty members delegated from the
several secular lodges in the State. Of these, forty-
one voted for accepting the proposal of Mr. Elliot,
one third of the whole number ; and it was before
the act of the Legislature prohibiting the adminis-
tration of extra-judicial oaths. ^Let the moral Anti-
masons who concur in the opinion that the Masonic
oaths and obligations are vicious and immoral, but
who are unwilling to manifest this opinion at the vS
ballot box, reflect upon this fact. Immediately
before it occurred, the two great political parties
had combined together, and burying all their dis-
tinctive principles, and distributing prospectively
between them all the offices and honors of the
State — had united in one gi^at and convulsive eflfort
to put down Antimasonry. j It failed ; the atmos-

82 /

260

phere of the Green Mountains diffuses around them
not only a physical but moral and political air too
pure for the contamination of political prostitution
The people at the ballot boxes bastardized the
fruits of this unnatural union, and prostrated both
the parties to it before the lofty spirit of Anti-
masonry.

The immediate consequence of this event was
the convocation of the Grand Lodge of the State,
to consider the proposition of the Royal Arch Com-
panion Elliot, and although it did not then succeed
entirely, one important step to the dissolution of
the order was taken. The Grand Lodge did grant
a permission to the secular lodges under their
jurisdiction, to dissolve themselves ; a process which
it is earnestly to be hoped that they will generally
pursue. For let the institution but be once for-
mally extinguished by the voluntary act of its
members in one State of this Union, and I harbor
not a doubt that it will very shortly vanish from the
land.

It is to this voluntary relinquishment of the
whole system of Freemasonry by its own members,
that I look for that great moral and political reform,
which will be effected by the extinction of the
order. Ta this sacrifice of their prejudices and
their pride, of their vanities and their follies, they
must be brought by the power of permanent and

251

quickening public opinion. I have approved of the
ballot box as one of the modes of manifesting this
opinion ; and this the more readily, because it was
at the ballot box that the maleficent power of the
Masonic trowel was cementing the edifice of the
polluted Temple. But I have not deemed the
ballot box the only, or even the favorite weapon of
Antimasonry. I have sanctioned the partial resort
to it with reluctance ; and would rejoice to see the
day when it should be no longer necessary. I have
indeed never resorted to it myself, by interfering in
any election against a Masonic candidate, and have
in the discharge of my own duties, peferred other
modes of operating, to the extent of my poor ahil*
ity, upon public opinion.

It was this last motive that induced me to publish
the four letters to Col. Stone, upon the Entered
Apprentice's oath, in which, by a minute analysis of
it in all its parts, the appeal to God, the promise
and the penalty, it was my purpose to prove it
wrong, vicious, unlawful and immoral— contrary to
the principles of Christianity, of humanity, of law,
of eternal truth and justice. To those letters,
now fifteen months published, not one word of reply
has ever appeared.

When the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of
the United States, at their last triennial meeting,
issued their mandate and exhortation to the chap-

252

ters under their jurisdiction, and their subordinate
lodges, to turn themselves into lyceums and schools
of useful knowledge, but to adhere to their Ancient
Landmarks — meaning their oaths, obligations and
penalties, I saw in their proceedings a new occasion
for an appeal to the moral sense of the community.
Edward Livingston, then Secretary of State of
the United States, was re-elected their Grand High
Priest, an office which he had occupied for the three
preceding years. The personal relations between
this gentleman and myself had uniformly been of a
friendly character. As the legislator of a criminal
code for Louisiana, and as on more than one occa-
sion a sound expositor of the principles of our
National Constitution, he had acquired my esteem,
my admiration, I had almost said my veneration.
In his code for Louisiana, he had proposed the total
abolition of the punishment of death, and in his
report to the legislature had supported this propo-
sition with a power of reasoning and of eloquence,
which, without entirely convincing my judgment,
had been viewed by me as at once the proof of a
vigorous mind and the pledge of a benevolent
heart. It appeared to me impossible that such a
man could read the letters on the Entered Appren-
tice's oath, without either assenting to their argu-
ment, or perceiving the indispensable necessity to
the institution of refuting it. I could not believe

263

it possible that he should deliberately consider the
oaths, obligations and penalties, which it was yet
his official duty to administer, either innocent, or
harmless deceptions ; speaking, in the name of God,
one thing and meaning another. As the General
Grand High Priest of Masonry in the United
States, he was bound to be the official defender of
the institution against any serious charge of unlaw-
fulness or immorality, and he had, perhaps incon-
siderately, assumed not only that character, but that
of an accuser of Antimasonry at the bar of public
opinion, in his inaugural address at his first installa-
tion. I sent him, therefore, a copy of the letters
on the Entered Apprentice's oath, and addressed
six letters to himself, calling upon him to defend his
Institution or to purge it of its impurities ; to main-
tain his charges against a numerous and respectable
class of his fellow citizens, or to retract them.

There are men upon whom the consciousness of
having done great wrong to others, produces little
remorse, unless awakened to the sense of their own
injustice by feeling the application of the scourge
from another hand. I did not believe Mr. Livings-
ton to be a person of such a character. I gave him
credit for honest and generous feeling. I believed
that if reminded of a gross injury committed inad-
vertently by himself in the form of erroneous
imputations upon others, he would hasten to repair

264

it. The voluntary reparation of its own injustice,
is one of the most glorious features of true mag-
nanimity. Mr. Livingston did not notice my
letters ; not even by acknowledging the receipt of
them. Had they been upon any other subject, I
have reason to know that they would have been
received with friendly acknowledgment and cour-
tesy. But you will recollect that in his inaugural
address upon his installation as the Grand High
Priest of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter of
the United States, to his brethren and companions,
he advised them — that if the cause and the effect ;
if the oaths, obligations and penalties of Masonry
as the cause; and the literal execution of them
upon Morgan and Miller as the effect ; followed by
the baffling of the sovereign authority of the State
of New York in all its exertions to bring the
murderers and incendiaries to justice ; if the throat-
cutting, embowelling, heart and vital-tearing, skull-
smiting, hanging, drowning, quartering, double and
treble eternal damnation of the penalties on one side,
— and if on the other, the apathy of the Masonic
executive government of New York, the packing
of Masonic juries by Masonic sheriSs, the perjuries
and prevarications of Masonic witnesses, the grants
of Masonic funds by the Grand Lodge and Grand
Chapter of New York to the convicted and con-
fessing kidnappers of Morgan, under the denomi-

266

nation of Western Sufferers ; if the illustrious and
successful achievement of the encampment of
Knights Templars in New York, in rescuing from
the gibbet, and conveying beyond the seas, one of
the murderers of Morgan; — if all this should be
pressed home and hard upon the fraternity, they
should meet it all with dignified silence !

I could not be surprised, therefore, at finding him
practice upon his own precept ; or at discovering
the difference of moral principle^ between Edward
Livingston the Legislator of Louisiana, and Ed-
ward Livingston the General Grand High Priest of
the Royal Arch Masonry of the Union.

You will observe, fellow citizens, that neither in
my letters to Col. Stone, nor in those to Edward
Livingston, was there one word of political Anti-
masonry. The object of the letters to Col. Stone
was to prove by plain and unanswerable argument^
that the Masonic Institution in its first rite of
initiation, is radically and incurably vicious — That
of the letters to Mr. Livingston was to prevail
upon him to exercise his great and powerful influ-
ence to discard those oaths, obligations and penalties^
which are the indelible disgrace of the order. To
these letters no answer has been made or attempted.

When my letter to Mr. Cowell was first pub-
lished, it was in like manner left unnoticed; but
when the recent election came on, then came the

266

season for revenge ; then it was that a part of my
letter to Mr. Cowell was produced, published and
trumpeted abroad ; and by the same process which
in Masonic logic and language expounds a throat
cut across from ear to ear to mean expulsion from a
lodge — a declaration that I would, if a member of a
State legislature, vote for the enactment of a statute
prohibiting upon pain of fine and imprisonment
the administration in future of the Masonic oaths —
was represented as a recommendation to cast into
prison every Freemason to whom the oaths have
been administered heretofore. And this Royal Arch
mistakej the Committee of the Worcester Conven-
tion did not disdain, in addressing you, to adopt
and make their own.

Before entering upon the field of the Masonic
controversy, I had not only deemed it my indispen-
sable duty to possess myself of the facts and princi-
ples material to it, but to contemplate the con-
sequences which would, and those which might,
result from being involved in it myself. In the
district which I was then to represent in Congress,
about two-fifths of the population were Antimasons ;
but the political majorities in both the counties of
Plymouth and of Norfolk, were Masonic, or at least
adverse to Antimasonry. Throughout the Common-
wealth, the Antimasons were in numbers scarcely
one-fifth, and in Boston not more than one-tenth of

267

the voting citizens, while the combined concen-
trated action of the three Masonic strong holds of
the State — Boston, Worcester and Salem — had
already succeeded, in accordance with the mandate
of the General Grand High Priest of the Royal
Arch Chapter of the United States, in raising
clouds of obloquy and persecution against the cause
of Antimasonry itself, and against all who espoused
it. I saw very distinctly that Antimasonry was not
the path of ambition. It was certain to give
umbrage to a large majority of the people of the
State under their then existing impressions. It
would probably displease three-fifths of my own
constituents, whose displeasure might soon be man-
ifested at the ballot-box. Their suffrages had not
been solicited by me, nor had I the most distant
imagination that I should ever appear as a candi-
date for the suffrages of the people of the State, as
their Chief Magistrate. I had at other periods of
my life enjoyed large portions of their favor, and
had received recent proof that that favor was not
abated. I had nothing more ever to ask of them
but their good opinion, and that was inexpressi-
bly precious to me. Why should I expose myself
to the risk of forfeiting it altogether, without
any earthly object or prospect of benefit to my-
self?
My only answer to this question is, — It was the

88

258

cause of truth and pure morals ; it was an abused
and calumniated cause ; it was a cause deeply
interesting to my constituents, to my fellow citizens,
and to my country.

My re-election to Congress, by an undiminished
majority of my constituents, had been very gratify-
ing to me, as a token that the portion of my fellow
citizens in that district, opposed to Antimasonry,
were so far disposed to tolerate my disagreement
in opinion with them upon this point, that they did
not consider it as a reason for withdrawing their
confidence from me*

The Masonic denunciation and misrepresentation
of my letter to Mr. Coweli had been tried against
me there, without effect. Neither Masonry nor An-
timasonry were subjects of controversy in Congress,
and it was enough for me to know that the great
mass of my constituents were satisfied that my zeal
for Antimasonry had in no wise interfered with the
faithful discharge of my duties as their Represen-
tative.

The Antimasonic Convention held at Boston in
September, were pleased to nominate me as their
candidate for your suffrages as Chief Magistrate of
the Commonwealth for the ensuing year. I knew
that their chief object in tendering to me the nom-
ination, was to make an effort to restore the har-
mony between the two divisions of the National

259

Republican party, which had long constituted the
vast majority of the people of the Commonwealth.
They were as yet separated only by that line : I
believed there was no neutral ground. Aware of
personal prejudices against me existing in a respect-
able portion of the National Republican party, upon
other and long standing collisions between them and
me — and the public service in which I was engaged
being more adapted to the experience of my past
life, and better suited to considerations of interest
to me, though of none to the public — I had very
sincerely hoped and expected that the views of the
Antimasonic party would unite upon some other
citizen, as their candidate for the chief magistracy
of the State. Their nomination was however
placed upon grounds which it was impossible for me
to withstand ; and as I knew it was on their part a
tender of the olive branch to those of their fellow
citizens with whom they had long walked in the
strength of united councils, and from whom they
had parted only at the dictate of a pure, uncom-
promising moral principle ; I accepted their nomi-
nation in the same spirit in which it was tendered,
and in my answer of acceptance, expressed to them
my determination, if the suffrages of the people
should confirm their nomination, to carry into effect,
to the utmost extent of my ability, their purpose of
restoring harmony to the Commonwealth, and of
promoting, as far as possible, that of the Union.

260

But in this acceptance, you will perceive, fellow
citizens, that there was a condition expressed — and
there was also one implied. The expressed condi-
tion was, the contingency that the suffrages of the
people should confirm the nomination. I was re-
solved in no event to hold the office of Governor of
the Commonwealth, from any hands other than
those of a majority of the people themselves — for
the obvious reason that it was impossible for the
representative of a minority of the people, to be the
suitable agent for promoting harmony among them.
If therefore a majority of the people should reject
the nomination accepted by me, it was clear that the
restoration of harmony, if to be effected at all, must
be accomplished under happier auspices than my
elevation to your highest trust. A failure, therefore,
of a single vote short of a majority, constituting me
your Governor by your own voice, would have been
a decisive indication to me, that harmony could only
be promoted by me, not by persevering in the con-
test of an election, but (if in any possible manner)
by retiring from it.

The implied condition was dependent upon the
same contingency. It was that my election should
involve no dereliction of other public duties with
which I was charged. I was a Representative
elect of the Twelfth District of the Commonwealth
in the Congress of the United States. Of the im-

261

portance to your interests and to the welfare of the
Union that you should have a full representation in
the popular branch of the national legislature, at all
times and without intermission, I had always had a
strong impression, and have now an impression much
deepened by the painful experience of the last Con-
gress ; in which, for the want of that full representa-
tion, you suffered in various ways gross injustice,
and particularly by the curtailment of your constitu-
tional right in that representation itself. As the
Representative of the Twelfth District, I held it to
be my duty to enter into no engagement which
should deprive my constituents of their voice in the
national legislature for a single day. If therefore,
even before your annual election was held, I had
seen reason to expect that I should be chosen your
Governor by the majority of the people, I should
have resigned my seat in Congress, in ample time
to give my constituents the opportunity before the
meeting of Congress, to elect another Representative
in my place. The Convention held at Worcester
the first week in October, rendered this measure on
my part unnecessary, and in resolving to take my
seat in Congress, 1 assumed the fulfilment of duties
incompatible with my acceptance of the office of
Governor of the Commonwealth.

In saying this, fellow citizens, I intend no reflec-
tion upon the candidate of the National Republican

262

party, for your suffrages as Governor ; nor do I mean
to say or insinuate that he is, or should be bound by
the principles of conduct which my sense of duty
prescribes to me for the government of mine. He
was nominated by a Convention, who, instead of
tendering or accepting an olive branch, resolved that
they must have a majority, and set all other parties
in the Commonwealth at defiance. He had no call
from them to promote harmony ; and if in the event
of his election he should, as I hope and trust he will,
do so, it will be in the indulgence of his own fair
and honorable spirit, and not by following the im-
pulse of that Convention, who, representing the
remnant of a party which once had a majority, seem
to have persuaded themselves that it must necessari-
ly last forever.

He has besides this, a vote of the people, by sev-
eral thousands, larger than mine ; and although by
the provisions of your Constitution, this is not suffi-
cient for his election, nor even to control the choice
of your representatives in the legislature, it is yet
amply sufficient reason for me to withdraw from a
contest with him, but not calling upon him to with-
draw from a contest with me, or with either of the
other candidates, nominated by the Constitution.

He is also the Representative of one of your Dis-
tricts in the Congress of the United States, and his
acceptance of the office of Governor, will necessarily

263

vacate his seat, and leave his constituents for a time
(I hope a very short one) unrepresented.

Mr. Davis does not estimate the evil and danger
of incomplete representation in the Congress of the
United States, as of so great magnitude as I do ;
and I regret to say, that your opinions upon this
subject, appear to correspond more with his senti-
ments than with mine. There is a great defect in
your laws, relating to the election of members of the
House of Representatives of the United States.
They require an absolute majority of all the votes
returned, and make no provision for the contingency
frequently occurring when such majority cannot be
obtained. This is one of the cases in which prac-
ticable good is sacrificed to theoretic perfection ; a
principle unsound in morals and mischievous in pol-
itics. The consequence of it is, that by adhering to
it inflexibly you voluntarily deprive yourselves of the
full representation to which you are entitled.

At the commencement of the last Congress, two
of your Districts were thus unrepresented, and the
immediate consequence of that was the choice of a
Speaker, assuredly not favorable to your interests.
Had those two vacancies been filled, another person,
less hostile to you, would have been chosen. Com-
mittees would have been appointed with more regard
to impartiality, and you would not have been de-
prived by political management of one thirteenth

264

part of your right in the representation, as you
have been, for the next ten years. Nor is this
the only or the greatest wrong you are suffering
and will suffer by your perseverance in stripping
yourselves of your own right. At the time to
which I allude, your whole delegation in the
House, with the exception of Mr. Davis, were so
impressed with the importance of this defect in your
laws, that they addressed a joint letter to Governor
Lincoln, requesting him to recommend a revision of
them to the legislature. He did so— but no effect-
ual remedy was provided. You remained for nearly
the whole Congress unrepresented for one of your
Districts ; for nearly the whole of a long and most
important session unrepresented for both ; and now,
at this day, shorn of your constitutional right to one
member by a grossly unjust apportionment law, you
are again self-divested of the right to another, by
the neglect of your past legislature to provide a rem--
edyfor the evil. To provide such a remedy, I be-
lieve to be one of their most imperious duties to you.
That an effectual remedy is perfectly in their power,
the example of nearly every other State in the
Union testifies ; and I can only express, as I do, my
earnest and anxious hope, that not one more session
of your legislature shall be suffered to pass, without
some provision of law, which shall secure to you at
least the remnant of your right to representation in

265

the councils of the nation which the injustice of the
present apportionment law has left you.

Let me not be understood as recommending the
principle, though sustained by the example of sev-
eral States of the Union, that a simple plurality of
votes should be sufficient for an election. There is
among the temporary laws of the Commonwealth, a
statute enacted in the year 1803, which while it last-
ed did insure to you a full representation in Con-
gress ; but it was suffered to expire, rather by inad-
vertence than from any dissatisfaction that was ever
occasioned by it. To the principle of requiring an
absolute majority of votes, I would adhere so long as
a reasonable hope of effecting it could be entertained,
but after two unsuccessful attempts, I believe it
would be a safer expedient to terminate the contest
even by drawing lots for the choice, than by the
protracted collisions and festering irritations of an
interminable struggle to turn the elective franchise
into an instrument of its own destruction.

Entertaining these opinions and holding these
principles, I consider the delegation to me of the
authority to represent in the national legislature, the
inhabitants of your Twelfth Congressional District,
as a trust, to be fulfilled with diligence as well as
fidelity. Not one day — not one hour— of voluntary
absence from the discharge of the duties incumbent
on that trust, have I permitted to myself during the

84

266

twenty-second Congress, nor shall I permit to my-
self during the twenty-third. In accepting the
nomination of the Convention at Boston, it was
therefore with the implied condition that it should
in no wise interfere with the fulfilment of my duties
to my constituents of the Twelfth Congressional
District — and from the moment it was ascertained
that an absolute majority of the people of the Com-
monwealth had not confirmed the nomination of the
Antimasonic Convention, my determination was
taken. And this determination was the more cheer-
fully made, because the three other citizens, between
whom your suflfrages are divided, and who will go
as candidates nominated by you to the legislature,
are all persons of ability and integrity, with whom I
have the pleasure of being acquainted both in public
and private life, and in whom I have great confi-
dence. To yield to either of them any pretensions
that I might have to your favor or that of your legis-
lature, costs me not the slightest sacrifice, and after
what I have said of Mr. Davis, it cannot be improper
for me to add, that the preference which I should
without hesitation assign to him, had I a vote in the
election, would be as much in the indulgence of my
own inclination, as in deference to yours ; it being
evident to me from the comparative numbers of the
returns, that in the failure of an absolute majority of
your suffrages for any one, his share of them ap-

267

preaches the nearest to it and must therefore be
considered by me as most deserving of it.

In concluding this exposition of my own motives
for assenting to the nomination of the Antimasonic
Convention, and for now withdrawing from the con-
test, let me give the parting advice of a friend to the
remnant of the party styling themselves National
Republicans, with whom I have generally concurred
in opinion upon most of the great interests of the
Nation and of the Commonwealth — though I have
never professed to be one of them or of any other
party. Let me exhort them to revise the Political
Class Book, the elements of which confound the
distinction between the meaning of the words must
and wilL Let them learn that it is not sufiScient
for a party to resolve that they must have a majority
of votes, without using just and proper means
to obtain it. Let them especially learn that to
put down Anti masonry, it is not enough for them
dogmatically to tell you that th£t ^Mook upon
the Masonic fraternity as furnishing no cause for
political strife."

The opinions of their addressing committee are
no doubt of great weight upon subjects which they
understand — but in the utter ignorance of the nature,
character and condition of the Masonic institution
which their address displays, it is not from them that
you will receive a dictation how you shall look upon

268

it. They speak of Freemasonry as ^^ an inefficient
and almost superannuated institution." An institu-
tion whichy at the moment when thus characterized
by them, was convulsing all the free States of this
Union ; an institution in support of which, under
the transparent mask of neutrality, they were ad-
dressing you with pages of invective and slander
upon its adversaries ; an institution, under the
shadow of whose wings they, and the Convention
whose voice they assumed to speak, were as effec-
tively assembled as if every individual of them had
drank the cup of the fifth libation ! They tell you
in the face of day, that Freemasonry is an inefficient
and almost superannuated institution !

And since when is it inefficient and almost super-
annuated ? Had the committee which penned that
address heard the eloquent orator of the craft at
New London, in July, 1825 ? He spoke of the then
present time^ and said, " It is powerful — it comprises
men of rank, wealth, office and talent, in power and
out of power, and that in almost every place where
power is of any importance. And it comprises
among other classes of the community to the lowest,
in large numbers, active men united together, and
capable of being directed by the efforts of others so
as to have the force of concert throughout the civil-
ized world. They are distributed too with the
means of knowing one another, and the means of

269

CO-OPERATING, in the desk, in the legislative hall,
ON THE BENCH, in everj gathering of business, in
every party of pleasure, in every domestic circle, in
peace and in war, among enemies and friends, in
one place as well as in another."

Is this the inefficient and almost superannuated
institution of the committee ? And upon this
faithful Masonic representation of Masonic power,
did you mark this concerted secret faculty of mutual
recognition for the purposes of co-operation, in the
legislative hall ? Did you mark its ascent upon the
very bench of justice ? Is this the inefficient and
almost superannuated institution ? What must be
the result of a mutual secret recognition for the
purposes of co-operation between a judge on the
bench, and a suitor or a culprit at the bar ? Inquire
of the records of the judicial tribunals of New
York, and they will furnish the answer.

Has the institution, in the short space of time
since the exhibition of this glowing picture of its
power, been suddenly struck with inefficiency and
superannuation ? If the committee had consulted
Masonic authority, they would have found that the
interval of fifteen months between the delivery of
this discourse and the murder of William Morgan,
was one of unparalleled prosperity to the order and
unexampled multiplication of its members. Since

270

the execution of the law of Masonry upon Morgan,
by the co-operation, among others, of the Bench^
the institution has been, and continues to be, a
church militant ; and if in the prosecution of that
warfare it has lost some of its efficiency, to whom
and to what is this diminution of its power attrib-
utable ? To Antimasonry — to political Antimasonry
alone. All the measures taken to bring the mur-
derers of Morgan and the incendiaries of Miller's
house to justice, were taken by political Antimasons.
Almost all of them were defeated by the power of
mutual recognition and co-operation upon the Bench^
and in the jury-box, and on the witnesses' stand.
The disclosure of the Masonic oaths, obligations
and penalties, was made by political Antimasons,
seceders from the order. Political Antimasonry,
and that alone, has prostrated the power of Mason-
ry throughout the whole of that region of the State
of New York, where the most atrocious of her
crimes had been committed. There, in the very
centre of her unhallowed dominion, her sceptre is
broken, her voice is silenced, her hand is paralyzed,
— she is scotched, not killed, and so entirely does
the existence, and of course all the evil, of political
Antimasonry depend upon the active and mischiev-
ous existence of Masonry herself, that wherever
she disappears, even but by hiding her face, political

271

Antimasonrj disappears with her. The people
cease to consider either Masonry or Antimasonry as
a test of qualification for office. Masons and Ma-
sonic adherents share the favor of the people in
common with others, and then all the trumpets of
Masonry, where she still reigns, sound the note of
triumph that Antimasonry is " dying away,"

Political Antimasonry is founded upon a pure,
precise, unequivocal principle of morals. That this is
the Antimasonic cause, the committee who address-
ed you against it dare not deny. Moral principle is
the vital breath of Antimasonry. That a party
thus originated and thus constituted, should be
traduced, slandered and vilified by men having any
pretension to morality of any kind themselves, is
not surprising, only because it corresponds with the
general current of history and the ordinary opera-
tion of human passions.

Political Antimasonry sprang from the bosom of
the people themselves, and it was the cry of horror
from the unlearned, unsophisticated voice of the
people at the murder of Morgan — at the prostration
of law and justice in the impunity of his murderers,
and at the disclosure of the Masonic obligations.
That cry arose, not from the mansions of the
wealthy, nor from the cabinets of the learned or of
the great, not even from the sentinels on the watch-

272

towers of Zion ; — it came from the broad basis of
the population ; from the less educated and most
numerous class of the community. So it is with all
great moral reforms. When the Gospel of Peace
itself was proclaimed, who was its Founder ? To
worldly eyes, the son of a carpenter. Who were its
Apostles ? Fishermen and tollgatherers, publicans
and sinners. Then the Priest and the Levite — the
Pharisee and the Sadducee — the Epicurean and the
Stoic — the Roman Governor and Jewish king stood
aloof, or co-operated in the crucifixion of the
Saviour. Not many wise men, not many mighty,
not many noble, felt the efficacy of the call ; and
they who did, immediately became the subject of
every persecution and every indignity.

Let me draw no irreverent parallel ; but the his-
tory of Christianity in its secondary causes, is the
history of all reformations of morals. It was by
means of the political Antimasonic excitement, that
the spirit of reformation penetrated from the mass
of the people into the bosom of the lodge, chapter
and encampment themselves.

The Le Roy Conventions were composed of se-
ceding Masons. The Dagon of the Temple fell in
the presence and by the hands of his own worship-
pers. If then Masonry has lost some portion of her
efficiency since the boasting celebration of her

273

power, by her orator at New London, it is to politi-
cal Antimasonry alone, that this purification of the
public morals must be ascribed. At this moment,
between the convulsive struggles of Masonry to
maintain in this Commonwealth her empire para-
mount to the laws, and the persevering efforts of
Antimasonry to redeem their supremacy, all the
great parties in the State appear to be dissolving
into their elements. Your political divisions are
becoming petty altercations for men — all community
of feeling and interest in public concerns is shivering
into rags. You have been unable to concentrate
your votes with united energy sufficient to elect the
ordinary officers of your government. You have of
your own choice, no Governor, no Lieutenant Gov-
ernor, scarcely a quorum of your Senate, and mul-
titudes of the Representatives of your towns have
failed to be elected by yourselves.

A long continuance of this state of things will
yield you and your interests to the mercy of those
associated with you in the national compact, — yet
feeling no sympathy with you, but much rather a
disposition to trample you under their feet. Of all
this, FREEMASONRY is the cause. Let but the
members of that fraternity within your borders,
convert their lodges into lyceums, and cease the
administration of their oaths, and you may again be

85

274

a happy and united people. May it so please the
Supreme Disposer of events, prays with every sen-
timent of respect and gratitude to you.

Your friend and fellow citizen,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

APPENDIX.

The following are exact copies of the oaths, obligations and
penalties, of the first three degrees in Masonry — the Entered
Apprentice, the Fellow Crafl, and the Master Mason— extracted
from the old manuscript mentioned in Col. William L. Stone's
Letters on Masonry and Antimasonry, Letter 7, p. 67 ; and in
the Appendix, p. 3, where it is said that while Morgan was at
Rochester, these papers were there, and already written to his
hands.

ENTERED APPRENTICE'S OBLIGATION.

r, A. B., do, of my own free will and accord, in the presence
of God, and of this right worshipful lodge, erected to God, and
dedicated to holy St. John, hereby and hereon most solemnly and
sincerely promise and swear.

That I will always hail, forever conceal, and never reveal, any
of the secret or secrets of Masons or Masonry, which at this •
time, or at any time hereafter, shall be communicated to me as
such, except it be to a true and lawful brother, or within the
body of a just and regular lodge, him or them whom I shall thus
find to be, after strict trial and due examination.

I furthermore promise and swear that I will not write them,
print them, stamp them, stain them, cut them, carve them, mark
them, work or engrave them, nor cause them so to be done, upon
any thing movable or immovable under the canopy of heaven,
capable of bearing the least visible sign, mark, character or
letter, whereby the mysteries of Masonry may be illegally
obtained.

All this I solemnly and sincerely swear, with a full and hearty
resolution to perform the same, without any evasion, equivoca-

276

tion or mental reservation, under no less penalty than to have
my throat cut across from ear to ear, my tongue plucked out by
the roots, and buried in the rough sands of the sea, a cable's
length from shore, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in
twenty-four hours. So help me God, and keep me steadfast in
this my obligation of an Entered Apprentice. K. once— [kiss
the Bible once.]

FELLOW craft's OBLIGATION.

I, A. B., do, of my own free will and accord, in the presence of
God, and this right worshipful lodge, erected to God, and dedi-
cated to holy St. John, hereby and hereon most solemnly and
sincerely promise and swear that I will always hail, forever
conceal, and never reveal, any of the secret part or parts, mystery
or mysteries, of a Fellow Craft to an Entered Apprentice ; nor
the part of an Entered Apprentice, or either of them, to any
other person in the world, except it be to those to whom the
same shall justly and legally belong. )

I furthermore promise and swear that I will relieve all poor
and indigent brethren, as far as their necessities require, and my
ability will permit

I furthermore promise and swear that I will obey all true
signs, tokens, and summonses, sent me by the hand of a Fellow
Crafl, or from the door of a just and regular Fellow Craft's
lodge, if within the length of my c^le of tow.

All this I solemnly and sincerely swear, with a ftiU and hearty
resolution to perform the same, without any evasion, equivocar
tion or mental reservation, under no less penalty than to have my
heart taken from under my naked left breast, and carried to the
valley of Jehosaphat, there to be thrown into the fields to become
a prey to the wolves of the desert, and the vultures of the air.
So help me God, dtc. Kiss [the Bible] twice.

MASTER mason's OBLIGATION.

I, A. B., do, of my own free will and accord, in the presence
of God, and of this right worshipful lodge, erected to God, and
dedicated to holy St. John, hereby and hereon most solemnly
and sincerely promise and swear, that I will always hail, forever
conceal, and never reveal, the secret part or parts, mystery or

277

mysteries, of a Master Mason to a Fellow Craft, or those of a
Fellow Craft to an Entered Apprentice, or them or either of
them to any other person in the world, except it be to those to
whom the same shall justly and legally belong.

I furthermore promise and swear that I will not be present at
the making of a Mason of a woman, of a madman, or of a fool ;
that I will not defraud a brother knowingly or willingly ; that I
will not give the Master's words above breath, nor then except
within the five points of fellowship ; — that I will not violate the
chastity of a Mason's wife or daughter, knowing them to be
such.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will attend a brother
barefoot, if necessity requires, to warn him of approaching
danger ; that on my knees I will remember him in my prayers ;
that I will take him by the right hand and support him with the
left in all his just and lawful undertakings ; that I will keep
his secrets as safely deposited in my breast as they are in his
own, treason and murder only excepted and those at my option ;
that I will obey all true signs, tokens, and summonses, sent me
by the hand of a Master Mason, or from the door of a just and
regular Master Mason's lodge, if within the length of my cable
tow.

All this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear,
with a fall and hearty resolution to perform the same, without
any evasion, equivocation or mental reservation, under no less
penalty than to have my body cut across, my bowels taken out
and burnt to ashes, and those ashes scattered to the four winds
of heaven ; to have my body dissected into four equal parts, and
those parts hung on the cardinal points of the compass, there to
hang and remain as a terror to all those, who shall presume
to violate the sacred obligation of ^ Master Mason. Kiss [the
Bible] thrice.

These three penalties, the Master of the Lodge, immediately
after administering this oath to the recipient Master Mason,
declares to him, were executed upon the three Tyrian Fellow
Crafts, at the building of Solomon's temple, and have ever since
remained the standing penalties in the three first degrees of
Masonry,

278

The following form of the Royal Arch Oath, and that of the
Knight Templar, are taken from the Boston edition of Averj
Allyn's Ritual of Freemasonry, printed in 1831, pp. 143, 236.

ROYAL ARCH OATH.

I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in presence of
Almighty God, and this Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, erected
to God, and ' dedicated tu Zerubhabel, do hereby and hereon,
most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, in addition to
my former obligations, that I will not reveal the secrets of this
degree to any of an inferior degree, nor to any being in the
known world, except it be to a true and lawful companion royal
arch Mason, or within the body of a just and legally constituted
chapter of such; and never unto him, or them, whom I shall
hear so to be, but unto him and them only whom I shall find so
to be, afler strict trial and due examination, or lawful informa-
tion given.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not wrong this
chapter of royal arch Masons, or a companion of this degree, out
of the value of any thing, myself, or suffer it to be done by
others, if in my power to prevent it.

I furthermore promise and swear, that T will not reveal the
key to the ineffable characters of this degree, nor retain it in
my possession, but will destroy it whenever it comes to my sight.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not speak the
grand omnific royal arch word, which I shall hereafter receive,
in any manner, except in that in which I shall receive it, which
will be in the presence of three companion royal arch Masons,
myself making one of the number ; and then by three times
three^ under a living arch, and at low breath.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not be at the ex-
altation of candidates in a clandestine chapter, nor converse
upon the secrets of this degree with a clandestine made Mason,
or with one who has been expelled or suspended, while under
that sentence.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not assist, or be
present at the exaltation of a candidate to this degree, who has
not received the degrees of entered apprentice, fellow crafl,

279

master maaon, mark master, past master, and most excellent
master.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not be at the ex-
altation of mare or less than three candidates, at one and the
same time.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not be at the
forming or opening of a chapter of royal arch Masons, unless
there be present nine regular royal arch Masons, myself making
one of that number.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not speak evil of
a companion royal arch Mason, behind his back, nor before his
face, but will apprise him of all approaching danger, if in my
power.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will support the con-
stitution of the general grand royal arch chapter of the United
States of America ; together with that of the grand chapter of
this state, under which this chapter is holden ; that I will stand
to, and abide by all the by-laws, rules, and regulations of this
chapter, or of any other chapter of which I may hereafter be-
come a member.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will answer and obey
all due signs and summons, handed, sent, or thrown to me from
a chapter of royal arch Masons, or from a companion royal arch
Mason, if within the length of ray cable-tow.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will not strike a com-
panion royal arch Mason, so as to draw his blood in anger.

I furthermore promise and swear, that / mil employ a com^
panion royal arch Mason, in preference to any other person, of
equal qualifications.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will assist a compan-
ion royal arch Mason, when I see him engaged in any difficulty,
and will espouse his cause so far as to extricate him from the
same, whether he be RIGHT or WRONG.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will keep all the se-
crets of a companion royal arch Mason (when communicated to
me as such, or I knowing them to be such,) without exceptions.

I furthermore promise and swear, that I will be aiding and
assisting all poor and indigent companion royal arch Masons,
their widows and . orphans, wheresoever dispersed around the

280

globe ; they making application to me as such, and I finding
them worthy, and can do it without any material injury to my-
self or family. To all which I do most solemnly, and sincerely
promise and swear, with a firm and steadfast resolution to keep
and perform the same without any equivocation, mental reserva-
tion, or self-evasion of mind in me whatever ; binding myself
under no less penalty, than to have my skull smote off, and my
brains exposed to the scorching rays of the meridian sun, should
I knowingly or wilfully violate, or transgress any part of this my
solemn oath or obligation of a royal arch Mason. So help me
God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.
[Kissing the book seven times.]

KNIOUT templar's OATH.

I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in the presence of
Almighty God, and this encampment of knight templars, do
hereby and hereon most solemnly promise and swear that I will
always hail, forever conceal and never reveal, any of the secret
arts, parts or points appertaining to the mysteries of this order
of knight templars, unless it be to a true and lawful companion
sir knight, or within the body of a just and lawful encampment
of such ; and not unto him, or them, until by due trial, strict
examination, or lawful information, I find him or them lawfully
entitled to receive the same.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will answer and
obey all due signs and regular summons which shall be given
or sent to me fi-om a regular encampment of knights templars,
if within the distance of forty miles, natural infirmities and un-
avoidable accidents only excusing me.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will help, aid and
assist with my counsel, my purse, and my sword, ail poor and
indigent knight templars, their widows and orphans, they making
application to me as such, and I finding them worthy, so far as
I can do it without material injury to myself, and so far as truth,
honor, and justice may warrant.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will not assist, or
be present, at the forming and opening of an encampment of
knights templars, unless there be present seven knights of the
order, or the representatives of three different encampments,
acting under the sanction of a legal warrant.

281

Farthermore do I promise and swear, that I will go the dis-
tance of forty miles, even barefoot and on frosty ground, to save
the life, and relieve the necessities of a worthy knight, should I
know that his necessities required it, and my abilities permit.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that / toill wield my
sword in the defence of innocent maidens, destitute widows, help"
less orphans, and the Christian religion.

Furthermore do I promise and swear, that I will support and
maintain the by-laws of the encampment of which I may here-
after become a member, the edicts and regulations of the grand
encampment of the United States of America, so far as the
same shall come to my knowledge ; to all this I most solemnly
and sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steady resolu-
tion to perform and keep the same, without any hesitation,
equivocation, mental reservation or self-evasion of mind in me
whatever ; binding myself under no less penalty than to have
my head struck off and placed on the highest spire in Christen-
dom, should I knowingly or willingly violate any part of this my
solemn obligation of a knight templar. So help me God, and
keep me steadfast to perform and keep the same. [He kisses the
book.]

FIFTH LIBATION.

This part of the ceremony attending the creation of the
Knight Templar is deemed interesting in connection with the
obligation.

Address of the Master,

Pilgrim, the fifth libation is taken in a very solemn way. It
is emblematical of the bitter cup of death, of which we must
all, sooner or later, taste ; and even the Saviour of the world
was not exempted, notwithstanding his repeated prayers and so-
licitations. It is taken of pure wine, and from this cup. [Ex-
hibiting a human skull, he pours the wine into it and says,] To
show you that we here practice no imposition, I give you this
pledge. [Drinks from the skull.] He then pours more wine
into the skull, and presents it to the candidate, telling him, that
the Jifth libation is called the sealed obligation, as it is to seal
all his former engagements in Masonry.
36

282

If the candidate consents to proceed, he takes the skull in his
hand, and repeats after the most eminent, as follows :

This pure wine, I take from this cup, in testimony of my be-
lief of the mortality of the body and the immortality of the soul ;
and as the sins of the whole world were laid upon the head of
our Saviour, so may the sins of the person whose skull this once
was, be heaped upon my head, m addition to my own ; and may
they appear in judgment against me, both here and hereafter,
should I violate or transgress any obligation in Masonry, or the
orders of knighthood which I have heretofore taken, take at this
time, or may hereafler be instructed in. So help me God.
[Drinks of the wine.]

The following extracts are referred to in Mr. Adams's fourth,
letter to Mr. Livingston, page 158.

Extracts from the Report made to the General Assembly of the Slate of
Louisiana on the Plan of a Penal Code for the said State. By Edward
Livingston.

" Legislators, in all ages and in every country, have, at times,
endangered the lives, the liberties, and fortunes of the people by
inconsistent provisions, cruel or disproportioned punish-
ments, and a legislation weak and wavering."

" Executions [in England] for some crimes were attended with
butchery that would disgust a savage."

" Acknowledged truths in politics and jurisprudence can never
be too oden repeated."

•* Publicity is an object of such importance in free govern-
ments, that it not only ought to be permitted, but must be
secured by a species of compulsion."

" If he [the culprit] be guilty, the state has an interest in his
conviction ; and whether guilty or innocent, it has a higher
interest that the fact should be fairly canvassed before judges
inaccessible to influence and unbiassed by any false
VIEWS of official duty,"

283

** It is not true therefore to say, that the laws do enough, when
they give the choice (even supposing it could be made with
deliberation) between a fair and impartial trial and one that is
liable to the strongest objections. They must do more, they
must restrict that choice, so as not to suffer an ill-advised
individual to degrade them into instruments of ruin, though it
should be voluntarily inflicted, or of death, though that death
should be suicide."

« The English mangle the renains of the dead [by suicide.]
The inanimate body feels neither the ignominy nor pains. The
mind of the innocent survivor alone is lacerated by this useless
AND SAVAGE BUTCHERY, and the disgrace of the execution is felt
exclusively by him, although it ought to fall on the laws which \

inflict it." I

** The law punishes, not to avenge, but to prevent crimes. |

No punishments, greater than are necessary to effect this work
of prevention, let us remember, ought to be inflicted.''

" Although the dislocation of the joints is no longer considered
as the best mode of ascertaining innocence or discovering guilt ;
although offences against the Deity are no longer expiated by the
burning fagot ; or those against the majesty of kings, avenged by
the hot pincers and the rack and the wheel ; still many other
modes of punishment have their advocates, which, if not equally
cruel, are quite as inconsistent with the true maxims of penal
law,"

" As to the authority of great names, it loses much of its force,
since the mass of the people have begun to think for them-
selves."

" Where laws are so directly at war with the feelings of the
people whom they govern, as this, and many other instances
prove them to be, these laws can never be wise or operative, and

TBET OUGHT TO BE ABOLISHED."

Extracts from dUaeked parts of ths projected Code.

"No act of legislation can be, or ought to be, immutable."
** Vengeance is unknown to the laws. The only object of
punishment is to prevent the commission of offences."

'* Penal laws should be written in plain language, clearly and

284

unequivocally expressed, that they may neither be miminder-
stood nor perverted."

" The law should never command more than it can enforce.
Therefore, whenever, from public opinion or any other oause, a
penal law cannot be carried into execution, it should be re-
pealed."

*'The legislature alone has a right to declare what shall consti-<
tute an offence."

T. R. HARVIir, PRIKTXR.

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